Israel’s top diplomat has welcomed suggestions that US President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner could be appointed as a special envoy to broker peace in the Middle East, but warned against hopes for a quick fix to the country’s decades-long conflict with the Palestinian people.
Deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely told This Week in Asia strong ties between Washington and Tel Aviv were unlikely to change under a Trump presidency, and “we even believe the relationship will be closer”.
“We would be so happy if someone could bring peace to the Middle East. We welcome him,” Hotovely said when asked about the prospects of Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, being made a special representative for peace between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Trump told The New York Times this month that Kushner would be “very good” at dealing with both sides.
“I mean he knows it so well. He knows the region, knows the people, knows the players,” Trump said of Kushner, who is of Jewish descent.
But Hotovely – who is Israel’s de-facto top full-time diplomat as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also foreign minister – said his ethnicity was not an issue. “What matters is that he is American...we will be happy if someone can promote peace,” she said.
Hotovely was in Hong Kong to receive an award from the World Health Organisation for Israel’s field hospital expertise, which has been used in disaster zones and for humanitarian relief around the world. She also held meetings with officials in the city, including Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
Hotovely defended the resumption last week of a controversial plan to build new homes for Jewish settlers in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
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Some observers say the move signals that Israel will aggressively push through with settlement plans during the tenure of president-elect Trump, who is seen as less critical of such expansion compared to President Barack Obama.
Obama has repeatedly voiced concerns that the new settlements in the West Bank would undermine long-term prospects for a two-state solution.
According to the CIA Factbook, around 371,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements around the West Bank area, which is home to more than 2.7 million Palestinians. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians hope to establish a sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza – controlled by Hamas – with east Jerusalem as its capital. Both sides claim that part of the ancient city.
“According to international law, we have definitely the right to hold the territories because this is part of our heritage,” said Hotovely, a member of the pro-settler Likud Party headed by Netanyahu.
“The facts are that we belong to Jerusalem and we belong historically to Judea and Samaria,” she said using a Israeli phrase to refer to the West Bank area.
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“In the Israeli concept, we are not occupiers, not according to international law, not according to history. We see ourselves as an ancient nation that rebuilt a Jewish state,” she said.
Asked whether the two-state solution was dead in the water following Trump’s election, Hotovely said her position was to avoid a repeat of “the Gaza experiment which failed dramatically”.
“We can’t do another Gaza in Judea and Samaria. I am very clear about this. People want easy solutions but the Middle East is not an easy place. We need complex solutions,” she said.
Hotovely said she was confident President Obama would not support a forthcoming draft resolution in the UN Security Council brought by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas calling for a halt to Israeli settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.
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There is some speculation that in his last days as president Obama could break from diplomatic tradition and abstain from using the US veto – or even support the resolution – as he looks to shore up his legacy in trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I don’t see the American president not vetoing such a resolution because it is against his own interest,” said Hotovely. “His interest is that the sides will come and talk and [doing this] is counter-productive to that,” she added.
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