JARED KUSHNER EXPLAINS WHY US DOESN’T WANT TO USE THE TERM ‘TWO STATES’

Jerusalem Post Middle East JARED KUSHNER EXPLAINS WHY US DOESN’T WANT TO USE THE TERM ‘TWO STATES’ “If you say two state, it means one thing to the Israelis and one thing to the Palestinians, so we said let’s just not say it, let’s just work on the details of what it means,” he said. [...]

Rhonda Ballance May 4, 2019

Jerusalem Post
Middle East

JARED KUSHNER EXPLAINS WHY US DOESN’T WANT TO USE THE TERM ‘TWO STATES’

“If you say two state, it means one thing to the Israelis and one thing to the Palestinians, so we said let’s just not say it, let’s just work on the details of what it means,” he said.

BY RON KAMPEAS/JTA

MAY 5, 2019 01:33

1 minute read.

White House adviser Jared Kushner at the “2019 Prison Reform Summit” in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (photo credit: REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner explained why he asked peace negotiators to no longer use the term “two states.”

Kushner, one of the key architects of the Trump administration’s plan for the Israelis and Palestinians, was speaking Thursday night at an invitation-only event organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank.

Here’s the explanation: At the outset of working on the plan, Kushner said, he found that different terms had different meanings, depending on the interlocutors.

“If you say two state, it means one thing to the Israelis and one thing to the Palestinians, so we said let’s just not say it, let’s just work on the details of what it means,” he said.

Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said he hoped the sides would not take unilateral steps before the plan is released — a gentle signal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off annexing parts of the West Bank.