TEL AVIV – Senior White House advisor and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East this week in order to advance a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, according to a White House official.
Together with Middle East special envoy Jason Greenblatt, Kushner is slated to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The two will then travel to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
“It is important to remember that forging a historic peace agreement will take time and to the extent that there is progress, there are likely to be many visits by both Mr. Kushner and Mr. Greenblatt, sometimes together and sometimes separately, to the region and possibly many trips by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to Washington, D.C. or other locations as they pursue substantive talks,” the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Excited to be traveling back to Israel and the Pal. Territories to continue the discussion about the possibility of peace,” Greenblatt, who arrived in Israel on Monday, tweeted on Sunday night.
According to the official, ongoing dialogue has been occurring behind-the-scenes since Trump left the region last month.
“President Trump has made it clear that working towards achieving a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians is a top priority for him. He strongly believes that peace is possible,” the official said.
The visit to Israel will be Kushner’s second in the past two months. Kushner and his wife Ivanka joined Trump in Israel on the president’s first state visit abroad in May.