I wouldn’t want to be Jared Kushner.
Yeah, he’s married to a beautiful, smart gal, but…he’s also the son-in-law of President Donald Trump. That’s gotta be a rough gig.
Jared’s a smart guy, I’m sure, and has done well in the Kushner family’s real estate development business, from what we’re told. It must be nice to be a millionaire when you’re born.
I’m not sure if young Jared wanted the assignment, he just picked the short straw, or was the only loyal Jew in the Trump family who was available (maybe Ivanka was busy with her clothing line?).
But, evidently, Jared was appointed by his father-in-law to resolve the Middle East situation. “Report back to me when you’ve got that taken care of, Son, and then you can tackle world hunger.” Or, more likely, “Solve that by next year or you’re fired!”
Seriously, where would anyone start to resolve the mess over there? It would be easier to make wine out of water, or…walk on water. Houdini couldn’t find a way out of this box. Melania’s marriage has a better chance of success.
Good luck, Jared! You’ll need it.
The Middle East is known as the “Cradle of Civilization”, so its understandable that people have been there a long time, arguing about this and that. The earliest recorded wars and empires were set in this part of the world, and the world’s major religions started there, as well.
The Jewish people (Hebrews) grew up there, and struggled for a thousand years to establish a secure foothold. But, time after time, they were pummeled by invading armies. Their religious center, King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, was totally demolished a couple of times. On several occasions, most of their population was forced into slavery or forcibly removed from their homeland. As a result, by the Dark Ages, most Jews lived outside of the Middle East.
So, to summarize, for a period of about 4,000 years, the Middle East was a crossroads, where empires such as the Egyptians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks, and the Ottomans ran roughshod over the native residents. Ever since about the 7th century, the Middle East has been overwhelmingly Muslim in religious preference, and Arabs and Turks have dominated the political power. Jewish presence and influence in the region was essentially nil.
When oil was discovered in Persia (what is now Iran) by the British in 1908, the major industrial nations became quite enamored with the Middle East. The region had been part of the Ottoman Empire (Arab) for the preceding 450 years at that point. But, the Ottomans made the mistake of allying themselves with the Germans in World War I, and, in the subsequent defeat, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved by the victors.
The British Empire, at that point, was still in full swing, and liked throwing their weight around and lording over everything they could get away with. There were wealthy Jews in Europe at that time, particularly the Rothschild family, which had amassed one the world’s great fortunes through their banking business. The Rothschilds had great influence with European governments at the time, because they financed major national endeavors like wars, colonial enterprises, government solvency, etc.
The Rothschilds were also were among the leaders of the new Zionist movement, which was trying to make a case for the Jews to return “home” to Palestine because of the persecution that they faced in Europe.
In a monumental stroke of stupid diplomacy, the British government, in 1917, sent a letter from its Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild declaring its “support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. At about that time, British troops captured Palestine, Gaza, Jaffa, and Jerusalem as part of a WWI offensive. So, the British had some leverage and standing to influence what happened to this area.
Zionists worldwide were galvanized; the Balfour Declaration had given Jews an “official” charter to exist in Palestine. The combination of events spurred extraordinary growth in the Zionist movement, and triggered large-scale Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine. At the end of the 19th century, there might have been 35,000 Jews in Palestine who had “returned” from exile in Europe. When the Balfour Declaration was announced (in 1917), there might have been maybe 75,000 Jews in Palestine. From that point until just prior to World War II, the Jewish population in Palestine swelled by another 372,000. Many of these immigrants were fleeing Nazism.
In retrospect, it probably saved most of that number from the Holocaust.
But, the long-time Christian and Arab communities of Palestine, which constituted at least 90 percent of the population, were strongly opposed to the Balfour Declaration and the fact that this decision by a European power had been made without their input about their own homeland. They and their forefathers had lived in this hardscrabble land for eons. They could see the handwriting on the wall…the potential that they could become the minority in their own homeland…and it was a bitter pill to swallow.
Shortly after the end of WWII, another 110,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, despite British attempts to limit the inflow. By that time, perhaps 650,000 Jews had immigrated. The total population in the region at that time was about 1.9 million; thus, the Jewish population of Palestine was now about half of the Muslim (native Arab) population. Resentment between the newcomers and the long-time Muslim population was rising.
The British Mandate (colonial control) of Palestine was set to expire in 1948. The newly-created United Nations, in one of its first decisions, adopted a resolution proposing to separate Palestine into two states: Jewish and Arab.
The Arab states rejected it out of hand, and, almost immediately, a civil war broke out, and the plan was not implemented.
In May, 1948, the British Mandate expired, and the British withdrew their military from Palestine. On May 14, 1948, Jewish leaders proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. The next day, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began, with the invasion of (or, “intervention” in) Palestine by the Arab states.
The forces from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq were defeated by the upstart Israelis, and, as a result, the new State of Israel controlled not only the area that the U.N. Resolution had proposed for Israel, but also 60 percent of the proposed Arab area.
It was a grave miscalculation by the Arab world: they were humiliated by the defeat, and the Palestinian Arabs paid a heavy price by ending up worse off than they would have under the U.N. partition plan.
The conflict triggered significant demographic change throughout the Middle East. Around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes in the area that became Israel, and they became Palestinian refugees. (They now refer to this turn of events as Al Nakba (“the catastrophe”). In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel with many of them having been expelled from their previous countries of residence in the Middle East.
So, an insidious game of tit-for-tat had begun in this already-contentious area of the world, thanks to the Balfour Declaration, the Holocaust, and the U.N. Resolution for the Partition of Palestine, the Arab world’s intransigence, etc., not to mention the underlying religious differences.
Basically, the Arab world has continued the conflict in various ways for the past 70 years. In each and every war or uprising, the Israelis have prevailed, further humiliating the Arab world. Because they have been under attack ever since their country was formed, the State of Israel spends a significant portion of their GDP on defense. The Israeli military could be the most technologically-advanced in the world, and the State of Israel also possesses nuclear weapons. They are surrounded by enemies, but are more than capable of defending themselves.
In that time, the population of the State of Israel has grown to 8.5 million, of which approximately 6.5 million are Jewish citizens. More than sixty percent of the world’s Jews now live in Israel. It is their ancestral home, it is theirs by right of conflict now, and they won’t be pushed around by anyone.
The Palestinian Arabs are the big losers in this tragic story. Their leaders saw the “catastrophe” coming, overplayed their weak hand, and are now much worse off than had they worked with the Jews on some reasonable compromise. They now exist at the sufferance of the State of Israel.
If the surrounding Arab countries were to obtain nuclear weapons (Iran is building a nuclear capacity), and foolishly decide to use them on their Jewish neighbors, there is no doubt that Israel would respond in kind and decimate major Arab cities in the region. It would trigger World War III, for sure, and maybe the Apocalypse itself.
So, what’s the United States doing in the Middle East? This sounds like a neighborhood squabble.
Well, in the first place, about half of the world’s petroleum reserves are located in the Middle East. The United States economy, the largest in the world for the past sixty years, runs on petroleum. It has been in America’s strategic interest to maintain some semblance of order in this part of the world.
So, in order to ensure cheap petroleum for our economy, we’ve had to suck up to the oil-rich Arabs, protect them from military aggression (Russia, China, Saddam Hussein, etc.), and put up with their under-the-table funding of anti-Israel shenanigans. This would include Palestinian troublemakers like the Yasser Arafat’s PLO, the Hamas terrorist organization, and Al-Queda (the guys responsible for 9-11), just to name a few.
On the other hand, the United States was the first country in the world to officially recognize the State of Israel as its own separate country; in fact, President Truman extended recognition (from the most powerful and influential country in the world) to them on the day they declared their statehood in May, 1948. That had to stiffen their backbone, just a bit.
To the Arab world, this was an outrage that would never be forgotten or forgiven.
Also not forgotten is the fact that Israel has been the biggest recipient of U.S. foreign aid over the past 70 years, totaling about $220 billion, most of which was earmarked for weapons. In essence, America has helped establish an anti-Arab, strategically-located military post smack dab in the center of the Middle East. Israel is its own country, but its interests and those of the United States have traditionally been closely aligned. We have no formal alliance with each other…it’s more like a handshake deal: “we’ve got your back”.
As discussed above, the steadily-strengthening Israeli state has defended itself on numerous occasions from Arab aggression. The Israelis always seem to be smarter and better equipped than their foes. And, their ace in the hole, in case things go sideways, is their ability to go nuclear. It is estimated that the Israeli nuclear inventory is the third largest in the world. That’s a lot of firepower for such a small country.
This is another sore point for their Arab neighbors.
One of the region’s major Muslim states, Iran, has attempted to develop nuclear weapons of its own. In 1981, a surprise Israeli air strike destroyed an Iranian nuclear reactor, which was believed by Israel to be a pre-cursor to a nuclear weapons program. That was allegedly followed up in 2008 by the introduction of the Stuxnet virus into Iranian nuclear research facilities, doing tremendous damage. And, in 2011, a joint Israeli-Kurd black ops incursion supposedly destroyed much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
So, Israel has been very successful in preventing its neighbors to achieve nuclear parity with them. This has particularly enraged Iran and its Shiite terrorist arm, Hezbollah, which is responsible for many of the bombings and other atrocities aimed at Israeli citizens in recent years.
Since the United States and Israel are closely aligned on security issues, and their intelligence forces typically work together on regional issues, it is probably assumed that America was complicit in these attacks. In addition, the United States has spearheaded economic sanctions against Iran as a deterrent to developing nuclear weapons.
So, the Arab world holds that against us, as well.
And, we can’t forget the occasions when either we, or our local surrogate (Israel) kicked the ass of some local Arab hero. That would include Egypt’s Abdul Nasser, Libya’s Moammar Quadaffi, Iraq’s Sadaam Hussein (twice), and Al Queda’s Osama Bin Laden. More recently, the U.S. participated in a joint effort to emasculate the upstart ISIS caliphate in Syria.
America hasn’t made a lot of Arab friends lately.
For the past 25 years, the United States has has foot soldiers on the ground in the Middle East, fighting in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. We’re tired of being there, with no apparent end in sight. And, Arabs in the region are tired of our occupancy of their homelands.
For all of these reasons, Muslim children in the Arab world and throughout the world, generally, are being taught to hate America, “The Great Satan”.
All Jared Kushner must do is reverse this trend, force the parties to let bygones be bygones, and encourage everyone love each other. The Arab/Muslim world and the State of Israel can tell how important this mission is by the fact that Donald Trump sent a young real estate developer from New York, with no diplomatic experience at all, to mediate the dispute.
In the likely event that the lad’s efforts will be futile, President Trump is hedging his bets by authorizing Big Oil to maximize oil production in the United States, thus making our country less susceptible to Middle East petro-blackmail by the Saudis and other actors.
I actually think this is the prudent thing to do. Maybe, at some point, we can just tell the Arabs, Muslims and Israelis…”Go to Hell”, and let them have at it.
Another alternative is for the Heavenly Father himself to intervene…at last. He could, of course, unleash another Flood, but that would be punitive to everyone, not just the bickering Muslims and Jews.
But, because these arch enemies are both “People of the Book” (i.e. both Jews and Muslims descend from, and worship, the God of Abraham), perhaps His Holiness could resolve this issue with surgical precision, targeting Muslims and Jews only. After all, he can part seas.
Do you remember that fancy flashlight device that the Men in Black carried around in their pockets: The Neurolyzer. The guys could hold it up in front of an audience, say “Look here!”, flash it, and the targets would thereafter have no memory of what had transpired.
I am confident that anything that man can imagine, God can create. After all, He is omnipotent, and He created the Universe and all the fancy science in it…in only seven days. Surely, he can come up with a Super Dooper Neurolyzer device to rid the Muslims and Jews of their thousands of years of bad memories. “Hey, looketh over here!”
Short of that, I think Jared Kushner is on a fool’s mission.
