T. Belman. I totally disagree. First a deal should not be approved sight unseen. Secondly, there is no urgency. It can wait a few more months until Trump’s second term.
Furthermore, Biden is heavily advocating for the PA and the two state solution. That has to affect the deal.
The problem is that Trump will not also be able to get a 2/3 majority to back it.
Recognizing that GOP support is needed for deal to succeed, son-in-law and senator tell ex-US president that new potential normalization accord would vindicate his Mideast policy
Today, 4:47 am
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, right, looks on during a meeting between US President Donald Trump, left, and leaders at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, May 21, 2017. (AP/Evan Vucci)<
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner have encouraged former US president Donald Trump to support his successor Joe Biden’s effort to broker a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The type of defense pact that Riyadh is asking to sign with the United States exchange for normalizing ties with Israel will likely require congressional approval and will need the support of at least some Republicans in a deeply divided Congress.
Accordingly, vocal opposition from Trump could harm Biden’s chances of getting the bipartisan support he needs — particularly crucial given the distaste for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman among progressive Democrats due to the Gulf kingdom’s human rights record.
Viewing an Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization agreement as a national interest that transcends politics, Graham and Kushner have sought to rally the former president’s support.
“I told President Trump… this is the natural extension of the Abraham Accords, and if we can do it, let’s do it. It doesn’t matter how it gets done, on whose watch it gets done. It’d be a good thing for the stability of the Middle East and our own national security and President Trump deserves his fair share of credit,” Graham told the Axios news site Wednesday.
Further appealing to the former president’s ego, the veteran GOP lawmaker said he also told him that Biden working to expand the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors that were brokered by Trump is “the highest sign of flattery.”
Kushner, who was a main force behind the Abraham Accords, has also passed along that message to his father-in-law, telling him that a Saudi-Israel agreement would represent a vindication of Trump’s Middle East policy by Biden, according to Axios, which cited two sources familiar with the matter.<
Graham appeared to confirm that account, telling Axios, “Jared Kushner has been very helpful. He had some ideas for the Palestinian [component of the normalization deal]. I know that he’s offered to help, I think the White House sees him as helpful.”
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity fund Affinity.<
It was not clear how Trump responded to Kushner and Graham’s pleas and a spokesperson for the former president declined a request for comment on the matter.
Graham has been one of the most vocal Republicans in support of Biden’s effort and will be traveling to Saudi Arabia and Israel next month for the second time this year to try and advance the initiative.
@Ted
@Tanna
Yes, I agree. I was actually shocked when Ivanka and Jared disappeared so quickly from the scene after being so prominently present throughout the entire Trump presidency and campaign, which, if reports such as those from Peter Navarro are to be believed, came at some political cost to Trump.
I took a dim view of Ivanka and Jared when they abandoned Trump soon after Biden was declared the winner.. They should have stayed by his side right to this day like Navarro has done and he is not even family and he is not the only one. Don Jr also stay by him till now.
I completely agree with the below comments. Trump is always an “In your face kind of guy”. As someone pointed out to me, who voted for Trump, but is experiencing buyers remorse…… Trump attacked McCain and he was a dead man. Yes, I replied, he needed to be attacked, just like L. Graham, two war hawks whom care nothing about peace. However, Trump hates unnecessary wars.
Trump should have Biden invite him to the Whitehouse to review this agreement. If it’s good for Israel say so. If it is not good for Israel say so. Then with the cameras rolling Trump should tell them(If it’s good for Israel) to get all the paperwork ready and After January 2025 when he’s back in the Whitehouse, he’ll sign it.- Then pull a Biden and just turn and walk off. Kushner I believe is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
So in the middle of an election year where Trump is running against Biden while Biden is trying to put Trump in prison for the rest of his life, Graham, a man for whom Trump has exactly zero respect, is working with Kushner, who completely abandoned Trump after having dropped the ball in preparation for the post 2020 election legal contests, to push Trump to provide Biden with his only foreign policy achievement which isn’t a debacle? And by doing so Trump would deny himself the ability to claim this prize for himself following his return to office?
It is true as Ted notes that Trump would not have the votes among Reps after his election, but following his (hopeful) election victory, Trump will be in quite a powerful position, and the Dems will be in a very insecure position from which to oppose him. I believe that Trump would find the means to gain the votes needed, and if he didn’t, he would use this as leverage against vulnerable seats held by Dems in the midterms.
In any event, I see no chance that Trump will provide the necessary leverage and votes to support Biden’s foreign policy trump card. No chance at all.
@EvRe. I agree with every word. As for Kushner, he is a democrat first and foremost. Though he supported the settlement enterprise all his life as did his father, my information is that he can’t be trusted and that he screwed Israel in the AA and the question of whether Israel can annex 30% immediately. I have more negative information that I can not divulge.
Lindsay Graham is not a man the Republican base trusts. He is a neocon, invested in forever wars, the Ukraine disaster, and here he is supporting Biden’s view of a “peace” deal.
Biden’s view of a “peace deal” is likely a poison pill for Israel. Any deal that is contingent upon the Palestinians will be destructive to Israel. The Biden team wants to support the Palestinians at Israel’s expense.
Netanyahu is a much more savvy negotiator than Biden, who barely knows where he is on any given day. Netanyahu does not need this barely cognizant Biden to “help” him. Biden’s team are full of people who hate Israel and want to empower Israel’s enemies.
Trump is a better negotiator than Biden. Trump is the most Pro-Israel President in US History. Trump doesn’t need Biden’s help to negotiate anything. And Trump certainly doesn’t need Biden’s pro-Iranian “negotiators” to help him negotiate any peace deal.
This idea might be about the globalists trying to get Trump to back their idea. The globalists want to see the US and Israel as sovereign nations destroyed.
If Trump signed on to this deal, it would either signal the deal was really extremely good for Israel or that Trump has changed sides completely and is on the side of Israel’s enemies.
I don’t know enough about Kushner’s loyalty to Israel to judge his role in this. There are plenty of Jews who do not care about Israel. If he really cared about Israel, I doubt he’d be siding with Lindsay Graham and feeling the need to get the Palestinians’ permission for a “peace” deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
I believe the Biden Administration is so inept and malicious that they were simply caught with their pants down when China interceded between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Now they are rushing to see if they can get the US back in Saudi Arabia’s good graces again. Perhaps they realize they aren’t going to get the deal unless Trump signs on.
I also think it is possible that Saudi Arabia’s joining the BRICs has the Biden Administration concerned about the end of the petrodollar and the end of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
If that is what the Biden administration is concerned about, they are reaping what they sowed. The Biden administration treated MBS with hostility from day one. Saudi Arabia realized that with Biden and his crew, they were never going to have the US backing them and protecting them from the malign interests of Iran.