Jared Kushner's Memoir 'Breaking History'

Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former US President Trump and his senior advisor during his 2016-2020 presidency, has recently published a memoir in October 2022 titled "Breaking History" — "A White House Memoir". The book, in English, is 499 pages long and addresses many important topics in which he participated during his service in the White House as Senior Advisor to former President Trump.

Kushner devoted a large part of his book to showcasing his skills in mediating the signing of the Abraham Accords; Kushner's role in reaching what was called the "Abraham Accords" occupies large parts of the book as noted above, including his role in negotiating normalization agreements between Israel and Arab states, and thus the title of his memoir, Breaking History, stems primarily from the importance of his mediation regarding the signing of the Abraham Accords and his description of them as a "historic breakthrough" — Breaking History — where, he says, five Muslim-majority countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kosovo, Morocco and Sudan — signed peace agreements with Israel...!

The importance of reviewing the text of Jared Kushner's memoirs comes in light of former President Trump's announcement of his candidacy for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, given that the Trumpist school, its figures and supporters represent the creation of policy formulations and concepts different from the previously settled consensual views in US domestic and foreign policy should Trump succeed in the next 2024 election.... This school is a school of purely American interests only; its perspective does not adhere to international agreements or concluded treaties. As for us Palestinians, bias toward Israel pervades many parts of these memoirs, while Kushner, in many parts of his memoirs, avoids mentioning the Palestinians and replaces them with mention of the Arabs and focuses on building relationships between Israel and its Arab neighbors..! He also avoids addressing the real causes of the Palestinian issue, and at the same time denies the Nakba, and the United Nations records and resolutions related to Palestine.

He wrote about himself and about the period when he met his wife's father Ivanka's father (former US President Trump), then moved on to record his period of service in the White House. Despite his lack of prior political experience, President Trump chose him after seeing his economic successes in the real estate field at his father's company, calculating that his economic success might be an indicator of potential success in politics.

Kushner was born in 1981 and studied law at Harvard and New York University, noting that there were press reports indicating that his father's company donated $2.5 million and $3 million to the two universities respectively, in 1998 and 2004.... These press reports add that Kushner's entry to Harvard was linked to that donation to the university in 1998, since his school grades did not qualify him for admission to Harvard. His father Charles Kushner was jailed in 2004 on charges of tax evasion and witness tampering, noting that his father had been affiliated with the Democratic Party... (Source: Al Jazeera + agencies + websites)

Kushner praised President Trump in his memoirs, describing him as an unconventional president... and he did not show any criticism of him or his policies. Kushner rejected critics of President Trump and described them as from the world of conventional politics....! Kushner wrote about Trump: "It can be argued that Donald Trump accomplished more than any other president in my lifetime," and that as a result of Trump's bold stances and "great policies," "our enemies feared us, our partners respected us, and our allies could rely on us again." (Source: Al Jazeera)

Kushner added that often the truth was hidden in plain sight. Through his unconventional style, Trump achieved results that were previously unimaginable..!

It is known that Jared Kushner is a man of silence, having relied on a strategy of silence in carrying out his work in the White House, for example to succeed in his mediation in signing what were called the Abraham Accords, as we mentioned above.. Noting that Kushner did not take notes about the meetings he attended in his capacity as Senior Advisor to the President.

Kushner said in his memoirs about the strategy of silence he followed: as we advanced our strategy in the Middle East, we were unable to discuss our approach publicly or the positive signs we were seeing from Arab leaders. Our negotiations advanced on a razor's edge. One premature leak could have pushed the traditionalists in the region to oppose the Arab leaders who bravely broke with the past to reach peace with Israel..!

It is worth noting that Jared Kushner had strong family, political and religious ties with Israel according to Reuters, and he noted in the preface to his memoir that he is here today — in America — only because his ancestors survived the Holocaust and later came to America, as he stated in that preface. His praise of Israel pervades many pages of his memoirs. Kushner comes from a devout Jewish family that opposed his plan to marry Ivanka, Trump's daughter, because she was Christian, which led Ivanka to change her religion to Judaism — according to press sources.. !

In this regard and concerning Kushner's relationship with Israel, The New York Times revealed in January 2018 that the president's son-in-law has deep financial ties to Israel, despite his supposed role in mediating peace in the Middle East...!

He boasted of his good deeds for Israel, adding that Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council had settled a bitter diplomatic and economic dispute with Qatar, paving the way for additional peace deals in the future. The Abraham Accords were a real turning point in history. If they are nurtured, they have the ability to bring a complete end to the Arab-Israeli conflict that has existed since the founding of the State of Israel 75 years ago..!

Kushner showed in his memoirs that he learned three things from his experience in the White House as Senior Advisor to Trump for the period 2016-2020:

The first lesson is that it is easy to make promises, but hard to deliver results; in this regard, finding people who believe in his agenda (meaning former President Trump) and know how to operate the instruments of power proved to be an ongoing challenge. At every turn, people inside the government tried to prevent the president from fulfilling his promises, such as moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem and withdrawing from the Iran deal... etc. Kushner added, describing Washington: it is programmed to resist change, even though change is what voters say they want more than anything else!

The second lesson Kushner learned is that political disputes in America are not always intractable as thought; usually Washington's game revolves around one party exiting power in an attempt to prevent the ruling party from achieving its priorities. While he found this frustrating at first, he says he learned to keep moving forward and to focus on the long game. He added that we cannot solve problems by merely talking with those who agree with us.

Finally, the third lesson, Kushner added, is that we all have the ability to make a difference in the lives of others, whether in our families, our communities, our countries, or nationally. In each case, the way to find solutions is by engaging with one another — not by criticizing one another or pointing to virtue. If we try to understand others' perspectives and work to find common ground, we can overcome past deadlock and craft a new path forward. There is no problem too great to be solved.

In these pages Kushner tells his personal story... primarily about the period he spent in the office of Senior Advisor. There are many quotations in the book taken from published records, such as transcripts, but others come from private conversations. In those cases, he relied on his memory and extensive interviews with colleagues and peers — according to Kushner's description.

● While Jared Kushner, as observers say, did not reveal secrets about conflicts that were in the White House during the administration of former U.S. President Trump.. except I will in later installments address some chapters of his memoir that relate to the Middle East.. and in which strengthening the position and presence of Israel in the Middle East was his main objective.. in cooperation between him and Jason Greenblatt, the former U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East, during the administration of former U.S. President Trump, who never criticized Israel... and was praised by the Israeli Prime Minister at that time, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not hesitating for a moment to tell the truth about the State of Israel...! Greenblatt later resigned after more than two and a half years in his post, and was replaced by Avi Berkowitz, Kushner’s senior adviser, in addition to David Friedman, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, who is known for his full bias toward Israel.

● To be continued