Haunted Real Estate Ken Intrigued by Value of ‘Waterfront Property’ in Gaza

Welcome back to Barf Bag. 

Former First Son-in-Law and murderous waxen doll Jared Kushner is back in the news because of some, uh remarks he made in a recent interview. Jared reminded everyone just how insane it was for him to have been working on peace in the Middle East when he served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, Kushner said that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable…if people would focus on building up livelihoods.” (The interview was on February 15, a video of it was posted online on March 8, and the Guardian covered it earlier this week.) He lamented “all the money” that had gone to building the extensive tunnel network and buying weapons, and, yes, that is the sad work of Hamas.

But Kushner kept going, with a suggestion on how to spruce up that nice section of land. “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out [of Rafah] and then clean it up,” he said. “But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.” Uh, buddy, I think it’s implied in the whole mass bombing and slaughter campaign the government is waging right now—leaving aside its support for settlers to illegally strip land from Palestinians first in the West Bank, and now in Gaza.

Where would Kushner suggest moving said refugees? Either to Egypt or to a literal desert in southern Israel. “I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said, adding, “I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move.” I’m not sure people would trust these ideas coming from a sketchy landlord who sounds like he really wants to build some luxury condos.

The interviewer, Professor Tarek Masoud, asked if people in Israel were actually considering shuttling refugees to the desert. “I don’t know,” Kushner said, shrugging. “I’m sitting in Miami Beach right now. And I’m looking at the situation and I’m thinking: What would I do if I was there?” How about…you don’t think about that, Jared?

When asked about potential Palestinian statehood, Kushner said a two-state solution was “a super bad idea” that “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”—ignoring that people have been pursuing this for decades and inferring that no Palestinian deserves it because of Hamas. Then again, this is the same person who said in a 2021 Wall Street Journal op-ed that the conflict was “nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.” It’s as if he’s a Ken in a MAGA version of the Barbie movie and his job is “real estate.”

Kushner said he wouldn’t join a second Trump administration but I guess we’re still not rid of him yet.

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