Tagged Jared Kushner

El Al schedules its first flight to United Arab Emirates

(JTA) — El Al, Israel’s national airline, is scheduled to make its first publicly advertised flight to the United Arab Emirates. The flight, which appears to be reserved for dignitaries, is set to leave Ben Gurion Airport on Monday bound for Abu Dhabi, the Associated Press reported. The flight… Read more »

So Bernie Sanders won’t be the first Jewish president. Here are 10 people who could be.

Mark Cuban speaks at a 2019 event in Phoenix. (Gage Skidmore)

(JTA) — When Bernie Sanders announced on Wednesday that he was suspending his presidential campaign, he closed the door on the last sliver of possibility that America would elect its first Jewish president in 2020. That leaves Jewish White House history to be made. Here are 10 people who… Read more »

Jared Kushner’s peace conference brings a minyan to 19th-century Bahrain synagogue

Jason Greenblatt, the top White House Middle East peace negotiator, second from left, organizes shacharit services at Bahrain's synagogue on June 26, 2019. (Jason Greenblatt Twitter feed)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s top Middle East negotiator, led Jewish prayer services at a synagogue in Bahrain this week, during the conference there that rolled out the economic portion of the Trump administration’s peace plan. Greenblatt mustered an Orthodox minyan — a quorum of 10 adult… Read more »

White House unveils economic portion of Middle East peace plan

A picture shows the new West Bank Palestinian town of Rawabi, described as the largest privately-funded development project in Palestinian history, just north of Ramallah, on September 29, 2017. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Days ahead of a workshop where Jared Kushner will seek tens of billions of dollars for his Middle East peace plan, the White House unveiled an outline of its economic portion, including proposals, like a Gaza-West Bank travel corridor, that are sure to rattle Israel’s government.… Read more »

Mike Pompeo clarifies comments that peace plan could be biased toward Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walked back comments he shared with Jewish leaders saying that it was an “inaccurate” perception that the Trump administration’s peace proposal could be seen as one-sided toward Israel. The Washington Post reported Sunday on a recording obtained from an off-the-record meeting last… Read more »

Mitt Romney: Two-state solution is all there is

Sens. Mitt Romney, left, and Chris Murphy at the Capitol discuss their recent tour of the Middle East, April 30, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Mitt Romney returned from a Middle East tour saying that he saw no alternative to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than the two-state solution. The Utah Republican, his party’s 2012 presidential nominee, has just assumed the chairmanship of the Middle East subcommittee in the Senate. Romney’s conclusion… Read more »

Did Jared Kushner’s interview with a Palestinian paper hurt his peace plan’s chances?

Jared Kushner during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, May 9, 2018. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Saying a U.S. plan for Middle East peace would be released “soon,” Jared Kushner sharply criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in what appeared to be an intentional gambit to drive a wedge between the Palestinian people and their leadership. Whether that strategy will bring… Read more »

OP-ED The underwhelming fact that Jared Kushner has ties with Israeli businesses

Jared Kushner at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., July 31, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — On Season 3 of “The West Wing,” a bomb goes off outside a cafe on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem, killing two American students. “What were they doing there?” asks C.J., the White House press secretary. C.J.’s question always struck me as the prime example of… Read more »

JTA’s most read stories of 2017

(JTA collage)

  (JTA) — It’s been a busy year here at JTA, where we’ve published thousands of stories covering topics as diverse as celebrity profiles to the rise of Europe’s right-wing to breaking the news of bomb threats at Jewish institutions across the U.S. Among the nearly 5,000 pieces we… Read more »

Jared’s first year: A report card

(JTA collage)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner stands up to bullies. He makes new friends. His academic progress — well, the first year is more about socialization than acing tests, right? President Donald Trump, in the first fraught months of his administration, heralded the promise of his Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and… Read more »

What did Jared know? Plus other Jewish takes on the Russia Affair

Robert Mueller, center, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., June 21, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

  WASHINGTON (JTA) — Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating whether President Donald Trump’s campaign had ties with Russia, issued two indictments this week and unsealed a guilty plea. Paul Manafort, who for several months last year helmed the Trump campaign, and an associate, Rick Gates, who remained with… Read more »

Jared Kushner on Israeli-Palestinian peace: ‘There may be no solution’

Jared Kushner speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, June 19, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

  NEW YORK (JTA) — If Jared Kushner is the only person who can deliver Middle East peace — as his father-in-law Donald Trump said — he comes off as a reluctant savior. In a speech delivered Monday to a group of congressional interns and leaked to the media, Kushner expounded… Read more »