Jared Kushner Archives - CrossFireArarbia

BoP and The Lurking Devil!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
March 5, 2026

Eight months ago and precisely in June 2025, the US and Israel launched their first combined “Midnight Hammer” military operation against Iran, in an attempt to obliterate its controversial nuclear facilities, set since 2018, to be settled through negotiations between the US and Iran. Prior to that strike, not Ukraine nor Venezuela or Greenland, but Gaza was the hottest issue on Trump’ international agenda, as he was applying the final touches on his anticipated peace plan for the devastated tiny strip! On 26 January this year, i.e. nearly a month ago, Trump from Davos, in Switzerland, proudly announced the birth of BoP, “The Board of Peace”, which he would preside over forever.

To enhance his initiative’s chances to succeed, Trump had invited world leaders to join his new born club for peace. Those who responded favorably had little choice to do otherwise, and some of them promised to contribute billions of dollars to make the plan work. Other big shots such as Russia, France or China were either not interested or invited!

The last one to join the club, but reluctantly, was no other than the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his direct involvement in the thick of the matter. Netanyahu thought the plan was naïve and amateurish in more than one aspect! So he would send his Foreign Minister to attend the signing ceremony in Davos, for his own thoughts were focused on other more important issues that would take place later! Regardless of Netanyahu’s caveats, the Trump BoP seemed to be one of few feasible options to stop the violence and killing committed by Israel.

in Gaza, and a shy start towards a peaceful transition in Gaza and beyond despite the many loopholes.
On this occasion Trump said: “This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization”. The he added: “I am not talking about Gaza. Gaza is one thing, but we are talking about
much beyond Gaza. The whole deal, everything getting solved. It is called peace in the Middle East”. While this BoP was hailed as an achievement for Trump’s diplomacy, envisaged by his top capable advisor to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and his assistant Jared Kushner, Trump’s trusted son-in-law, it whistled disaster in Netanyahu’s ears.

From this man’s point of view, if the BoP was put on track of the peace train, let alone its arrival at its desired destination, it would mean one thing and nothing else: the end of Gaza tragedy which also meant the end of Netanyahu’s political career. For him, it looked like a trap that he had, knowingly but unwillingly, a role in setting up. At this crucial moment the manipulative devil and the survival instinct in
Netanyahu, were awakened and pushed him to embark on planning a reversal of this momentum. He had to end this nonsense talk about peace for Gaza, let alone beyond! For certain, he regretted his consent to the suspension of the Midnight-Hammer strike back in June against Iran. Now time is running short for him again.

He needs to take a big and last gamble to divert Trump’s current menacing approach to solve the thorny issues in this region. He, prematurely, and ahead of his originally scheduled visit to the US, books
a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, thus effecting his sixth meeting with Trump in less than a year!

There, he presents his case: Today, he tells Trump, Iran is the biggest real danger facing Israel and the free world led by the US; Iran is stockpiling an arsenal of all kinds of deadly missiles; the majority of
Iranians want the US to help them topple the regime which is massacring the protesters in the streets; Iranian negotiating team are just buying more time; it is now or a never again chance to finish this
nightmare called Iran, after its proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Gaza and Lebanon were defeated earlier.
Trump submissively listened, as Netanyahu managed to put a hold on every other item on Trump’s agenda, including his cherished BoP project for which he hoped to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for
peace!

Today as the war against Iran goes into its sixth day, two things and plus are crystal clear; there will be no peace prizes, and there will lot of havoc and chaos on the ground, plus the devil in Netanyahu, will be the happiest breathing creature around, for the time being!

Analyses

Israel’s World Image in The Gutter

CrossFireArabia
August 30, 2025

By Ismael Al Sharif

“This situation must end. It is blackmail, and it must end. Freeing the hostages by force would be safer than negotiating a deal that allows Hamas to survive.” – Trump

These days, leaks, press reports, and international positions are proliferating that are damaging Israel’s image severely. The most recent is a joint investigation by the British Guardian, +972 magazine, and the Hebrew website Local Call, which revealed an Israeli intelligence database showing that five out of every six Palestinians killed in Gaza until last May were civilians. Only one-sixth of the martyrs were Hamas fighters. This figure is only half what Israel previously announced.

What’s more alarming is that Israel’s own reports are based on numbers from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, figures Israel and the United States have long denied.

Leaks attributed to Aharon Haliva, former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman), dating back to March 2024, justified the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians. “For every Israeli killed, 50 Palestinians must be killed in return, regardless of whether they are children,” he said. This statement is not merely a slip of the tongue but reflects a hardline religious and ideological current and embodies a systematic political and military strategy.

Two American mercenaries working for the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” appear to admit that the Israeli army working with the US mercenaries bear direct responsibility for targeting hundreds of starving Palestinians with indiscriminate fire.

In this context, the United Nations confirms the Gaza Strip is facing the most severe phase of a man-made famine, not attributed to a natural disaster.

As a result of the popular demonstrations sweeping the streets of Europe and Australia, which have put significant pressure on their governments, criticism has begun to emerge from even Israel’s closest allies.

The Danish Sovereign Wealth Fund announced it was withdrawing its investments from the Israeli entity, and Germany has suspended arms exports there. In a British parliamentary session on 22 July, Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated: “I firmly believe the actions of the Israeli government are causing enormous damage to Israel’s standing globally.” These escalating positions reflect a growing shift in the positions of its allies.

The Israeli media, along with the pro-Israeli global media—one of Israel’s most important soft power tools—are failing to counter these reports, leaks, and shifting positions among its allies.

War criminal Netanyahu himself acknowledged the failure of the Israeli media and its pro-Israel media to repair the deteriorating image of the Jewish state. Logic would have required Israel to improve its media image by halting the massacres and allow humanitarian aid to enter.

Instead, he denied all these accusations and launched an attack on its closest allies, reminding Germany of its Nazi era and its actions would only serve “terrorism” and be a “reward to Hamas.” The Zionist Foreign Ministry also summoned the ambassadors of the above countries and reprimanded them.

War criminal Netanyahu pressured the social media to alter their algorithms. Leaked documents reveal that Twitter and Facebook already restricted posts deemed to be anti-Israel and/or sympathetic to the tragic plight of our people in Gaza. He did not stop there, but went on to criminally assassinate the journalists, the latest of which at the Nasser Hospital, killing four journalists at once, to silence voices and intimidate the media workers from carrying out their mission.

War criminal Netanyahu would not have dared to display such arrogance, defiance, and indifference without American support, as he always relies on “Big Brother” to compensate for his material and moral losses. Take the example of Charles Kushner—Jared Kushner’s father and the US ambassador to France— who wrote an open letter to President Macron, published in The Wall Street Journal.

He expressed his “deep concern about the sharp rise in anti-Semitism in France,” accusing the French government of failing to take sufficient steps to counter it. He also noted that Paris’s critical statements about Israel and its efforts to recognize a Palestinian state “encourages extremists, fuels violence and endanger Jewish lives.”

The letter coincided with the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Paris and the halt to the deportation of Jews to Nazi concentration camps, a symbolic reminder of a tragic past.

However, France rejected and condemned the letter, and the US State Department quickly came out in support of the US ambassador there.

Netanyahu’s motto is: Those who have an ally like the United States have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.

This is a translated piece written by Ismael Al Sharif and published in the Arabic Addustour newspaper in Amman.

Analyses

Killing Gaza Slowly

CrossFireArabia
August 20, 2025

By Tarek Bae

File Photo

“Gaza is on the verge of economic and humanitarian collapse. People live day to day, always at risk from hunger and disease,” notes a UN report. Yet these words were written not in 2025, but by the Independent UN Commission of Inquiry on Gaza in 2019.

Israel has enforced a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007. No one and nothing enters or leaves without Israeli permission, including at the crossing to Egypt. Every import and every exit requires an application to Israeli authorities. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called Gaza the world’s largest open-air prison. Between 2017 and 2021, Israel blocked materials needed to maintain the water system. In 2017, the UN stated that 97% of Gaza’s water was undrinkable. Oxfam concluded the same year that Gaza was the most water-scarce place on earth.

From 2023 onward, Gaza became the target of genocide. From the first days, the blockade on essentials was radically expanded. On Oct. 8, 2023, then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced there would be “no electricity, no food, no fuel,” because Israel was fighting “human animals.” The total blockade, combined with unprecedented bombardment, turned Gaza into the greatest humanitarian crisis of the 21st century.

During this genocide, international agencies, especially the UN, struggled to keep civilians alive. More than 400 distribution points tried to provide the bare minimum. Political pressure was needed again and again. There were 11 UN resolutions in all, 4 by the Security Council, 5 by the General Assembly and 2 by the Human Rights Council, calling on Israel to enable sufficient humanitarian aid. Israel dismantled every channel through which aid could be delivered. More than 900 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since the genocide began. Never before in any war has the toll on aid workers been so high.

Netanyahu’s starvation strategy

By March 2025, the total blockade hardened into an open starvation strategy. “We have decided to stop all deliveries into Gaza, including food, water and aid,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on March 2, 2025.

Barely two months later, in May, Israel and the US rolled out the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). This, Israeli officials said, would be the new and only route for humanitarian aid. Rumors of a new distribution mechanism had circulated since February, a design Israel was planning with US partners. Coverage of those plans was overshadowed by Donald Trump’s “Gaza Plan.” In a joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington on Feb. 4, 2025, Trump publicly declared the intention of the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip. That the GHF sits inside this vision follows from statements by GHF officials. In June 2025, Executive Chairman Johnnie Moore Jr. said: “The United States will take full responsibility for the future of Gaza.”

It is not a purely American venture. Logistical coordination at the GHF is led by Israeli Brigadier General Yaakov Baruch. Despite its name, the GHF is not a foundation; it is a political-military organization. Alongside the Israeli military, mercenaries from the US are involved. According to The Times of Israel, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Trump, is the chief architect of the idea. The US initially put €30 million ($35 million) into the project, with further pledges. In July 2025, Trump complained that no one had expressed gratitude. But what exactly should anyone thank the GHF, Israel, or the US for? GHF spokesperson Shahar Segal offers an answer. “It is frustrating to see people constantly blaming Israel, when in reality it is Israeli logistics that ensure humanitarian food reaches those who desperately need it. The GHF model is saving lives.”

Is that true? No. Among the familiar set of claims used to relativize the genocide is the allegation that allowing international aid only helps Hamas. Again and again, the line is that aid never reaches civilians. Another claim is that Hamas steals humanitarian supplies. The conclusion is clear: this is propaganda. Videos of armed guards on trucks or of lootings by armed gangs have been presented by Israel, in a misleading fashion, as Hamas seizures.

A review by the United States Agency for International Development examined 156 incidents of loss or theft of US-funded aid between October 2023 and May 2025. It found not a single piece of evidence that any of those incidents could be attributed to Hamas. In 44 cases, there were links to Israeli military activity. Reuters reported that Israeli military offices had produced no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas. The New York Times cited sources inside Israel’s government who acknowledged they had none either.

From 400 aid points to 4 militarized sites

Is the GHF more effective at distributing aid? Not at all. Instead of the 400 international distribution points that once existed, Israel’s blockade and the imposition of the GHF have left only 4 highly militarized sites, with just 1 in the densely populated north. The UN calculates that Gaza’s basic humanitarian need amounts to around 600 truckloads a day. By its own account, the GHF moves at most 26 truckloads daily, roughly 4% of what is required. In a territory facing acute hunger, such an amount is not small—it is nothing.

According to the IPC Famine Review Committee, the whole of Gaza has been in IPC Phase 5 since July, the highest alert, a catastrophic food emergency. People in this phase are at immediate risk of starvation. More than 700,000 people have gone days without any food. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, was blunt: “Israel has made clear its intention to starve everyone in Gaza.”

What Israel and the US call a distribution mechanism and a foundation is, in the words of Doctors Without Borders, “slaughter dressed up as humanitarian aid.” Starving civilians are forced to walk up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) under the burning sun to reach GHF sites. Arrival does not guarantee help. More than 1,881 starving civilians have been killed at or near GHF distribution sites. The Israeli army regularly fires indiscriminately into the waiting crowd.

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, calls the GHF “an alibi for the systematic starvation of Gaza.” For him, the logic is clear. Israel destroyed the humanitarian infrastructure in order to replace it with a facade organization under military control. OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke sees in the GHF a “distraction.”

What does it distract from? Netanyahu has said the plan out loud. On May 11, according to the Israeli outlet Maariv, he tied aid to permanent expulsion. Those who receive aid at a given place should never see that place again and must evacuate. “The residents of Gaza whom we are expelling will not return. They will no longer be there. We will control the place. There is no other war aim. All other goals are mere eyewash.”

By the Israeli government’s own account, the GHF is a means to drive Palestinians out of Gaza or to let them die, by deliberately starving them, denying supplies, and cutting off humanitarian aid.

*The author is the editor-in-chief of the German journal itidal.de. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu.

News

Bernie Sanders Damns Trump For Gaza Take Over

CrossFireArabia
February 11, 2025

US Senator Bernie Sanders, Sunday, rejected President Donald Trump’s remarks on the future of Gaza, emphasizing that the war-torn enclave should be rebuilt for Palestinians rather than for wealthy investors.

“47,000+ Palestinians killed. 111,000 injured,” Sanders wrote on X. “Trump’s response? Forcibly expel Palestinians to make Gaza ‘a real estate development for the future. A beautiful piece of land.’ No. Gaza must be rebuilt for the Palestinian people, not billionaire tourists.”

His comments came after President Donald Trump said in comments aired Monday that Palestinians who leave the besieged Gaza Strip under his widely panned ownership plan for the coastal enclave will not be allowed to return.

“We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future, it would be a beautiful piece of land,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News, doubling down on his Gaza “take over” proposal.

Asked directly by the interviewer if Palestinians would “have the right to return,” Trump said flatly, “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing.”

Trump’s controversial plan on Gaza

Trump rolled out his proposal in the midst of an ongoing ceasefire that has halted Israel’s war on Gaza after 15 months. His plan to take ownership of Gaza has been roundly rejected on the world stage, but Trump has insisted that he will see it through, repeatedly claiming he can force Egypt and Jordan to settle Palestinian refugees — claims they have publicly rebuffed, as have the Palestinians.

Trump’s plan shares strong similarities to one publicly put forward by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in March 2024, when the president’s one-time advisor lauded the Palestinian territory’s “very valuable” Mediterranean property.

“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said during an interview at Harvard University. “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”

Israel’s war on Gaza has left the besieged enclave in ruins, with half of its housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid severe shortages of sanitation, medical supplies, food, and clean water. Over 47,000 people have been killed.

News

Trump Insists on ‘Buying’ Gaza Despite Opposition

CrossFireArabia
February 10, 2025

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his commitment to controlling and buying Gaza, dismissing objections from its native Palestinian inhabitants. In a recent statement, Trump declared his commitment to buying Gaza, sparking controversy by framing the Palestinian cause as a real estate issue.

Trump also proposed potentially reallocating parts of Gaza to other countries in the Middle East. “We could give parts of Gaza to neighboring countries,” he added, hinting at fulfilling Israel’s expansionist ambitions.

Speaking to journalists, Trump had proposed transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. He suggested inviting “the world’s people” to move there while expelling over 2 million native Palestinians. His remarks echo earlier statements by his son-in-law and former aide, Jared Kushner, who described Gaza’s waterfront as valuable real estate.

Last year, Kushner said Israel should remove Gaza’s population while “cleaning up” the area. In an interview with Harvard’s Middle East Initiative, he proposed bulldozing parts of the Negev Desert to relocate Palestinians there. He also suggested that, “with the right diplomacy,” Israel could push Palestinians out through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Trump’s plan has sparked outrage, with Palestinians rejecting any forced displacement. Critics see it as a continuation of Israeli policies aimed at erasing Palestinian presence from the land according to the Quds News Network.