Zionist Organization of America Blasts Jared Kushner’s Middle East Remarks

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) criticized White House aide Jared Kushner’s remarks on the Middle East peace process at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution on Sunday, saying he had erred describing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the key to broader stability in the region.

ZOA president Morton A. Klein said in a statement:

In fact, an Israeli-Palestinian deal is not the key to Middle East Stability; Instead, a deal would undermine stability: ZOA respectfully disagrees with Mr. Kushner’s statements that: “I think that If we’re going to try and create more stability in the region as a whole, you have resolve this [Israeli-Palestinian] issue” and “A lot of the issues that come up in the relationship on a day-to-day basis are causes of not having a final status agreement.” In fact, the opposite is the case. A Palestinian-Arab state would be a corrupt Fatah-Hamas-Iranian proxy terror state, and is a recipe for disaster that would place the heartland of Israel in danger of day-to-day rocket attacks, increase day-to-day terrorism, and at best leave unaffected and at worst dramatically increase instability in the region and locally.

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Establishing a Palestinian-Arab state would also not stop Iran’s continuing march towards nuclear weapons capability and regional hegemony, or Iran’s growing presence near Israel’s border with Syria, or Iran’s increasing support for terror proxies – the gravest dangers in the Middle East.

In fact, focusing on Palestinian-Arab demands interferes with the rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Arab states that is needed to curb Iran’s dangerous ambitions.

The statement added: “The ZOA appreciates Mr. Kushner’s sincere desire for peace and stability.”

The ZOA describes itself as “the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.