Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is apparently in position to make a killing off Israel’s warmongering in the Middle East.
That’s the crux of a new report from CNN, which helps shine light on ways the president’s family is profiting from Israel’s war economy. Trump has assigned Kushner and Steve Witkoff to oversee peace efforts between the Israeli government and Palestinian leaders.
But Kushner is a businessman tasked with doing government business. In one example, his plan to use part of Gaza for a ritzy real estate development provided “a glossy sheen to ethnic cleansing,” as my colleague Anthony Fisher put it last year, dampening hopes that Kushner might at least appear to be a good-faith negotiator.
And news of his ties to Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer and other companies that provide weapons to Israel won’t help boost such hopes. As CNN reported:
At the same time Jared Kushner has acted as a key negotiator in the war in Gaza, his private equity company, Affinity Partners, has held the largest stake in an Israeli firm backing businesses involved in Israel’s military campaigns, a CNN investigation has found.
Kushner has skirted deeper scrutiny of this potential conflict of interest by acting as a volunteer envoy, rather than accepting a government job that would require him to disclose his finances.
The report centers on Affinity Partners and the hundreds of millions of dollars it has invested in an Israeli firm called Phoenix Financial, which holds large holdings in companies that make weapons and military equipment for Israel.
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Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.