THIS refers to the news report ‘Trump adviser Kushner criticises Abbas, says US peace plan coming soon’ (June 25).

We know that Jared Kusher, a fanatic supporter of illegal Israeli settlements, happens to be US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and he also doubles up as the president’s senior adviser on the Middle East.

Kushner has just revealed that Washington would announce its Middle East peace plan soon, and press on with or without Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Earlier on Trump, in defiance of nearly the whole world, had announced the shifting of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which amounted to offering the whole of Jerusalem to Israel on a plate. This was in complete disregard of Palestinians’ demand for East Jerusalem as the capital of their state.

We all have heard of the ‘carrot and stick policy’ but Trump and his son-in-law team are giving all carrots to Israel and all sticks to Palestinians. This is a strange application of the dictum.

I suppose the two, both dealers in estate, consider the Palestinian problem to be no different from the usual estate deal where they would oblige the party that offered them most, with substantial sums changing hands undocumented.

The only problem is that Jerusalem is not an ‘estate’, and it is not theirs to give away anyway.

Syed Riaz
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2018