Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law and senior presidential advisor, has commented on his upcoming peace plan for Israel and Palestine, calling it an "unconventional approach."
Remarking on previous US administrations' adherence to a two-state solution, Kushner said previous attempts at negotiating peace had "failed" and that the new proposal will be different, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.
"We've taken what I think is an unconventional approach. We've studied the past efforts and how they failed and why they failed," Kushner said, avoiding articulating any specifics of the upcoming plan, expected to be released after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "We've tried to do it a bit differently."
"If people focus on the old traditional talking points, we're never going to make progress," he added, in an apparent reference to the two-state solution.
He did specify, however, that the upcoming plan will take Israel's security concerns into account, while simultaneously "dealing with all the core status issues." Besides, the plan will also propose a "robust business plan for the whole region."
"I think that with the two together you have the opportunity to push forward," he said.
In order to make the plan a reality, both sides must be ready for "tough compromises," Kushner explained, adding that he has no illusions as to whether the plan will be accepted instantly with open arms by both sides.
"I hope that when they look at our proposal — I'm not saying they're going to… say ‘this is perfect and let's go forward.' I'm hopeful that what they'll do is say ‘there are some compromises here, but at the end of the day this is really a framework to allow our lives [to get] materially better,'" he explained.
"We'll see if the leadership on both sides has the courage to take the leap to try and go forward," Kushner added.
According to that plan, Israel would seek to secure its border with Jordan and establish a buffer zone in Jordan Valley north of the Dead Sea, seize a strip around Jerusalem "to ensure that the city is not choked by adjoining Palestinian areas," install early warning stations in the Samarian mountains and secure the Israel's largest aquifer, containing some 40 percent of country's water, which runs along the lower part of the western slopes of the Judean and Samarian hills.
With all the abovementioned territories secured by Israel, Palestinians will be given freedom to act as they please as long as their territories remain demilitarized and pose no threat to Israel. As Netanyahu himself put it in his book "A Durable Peace," "the Palestinians should have all the powers to run their lives and none of the powers to threaten Israel's life."
However, whether Kushner's plan will embrace Bibi's old plans in full remains to be seen.
