Israeli journalist says Jared Kushner threw Israeli ambassador out of White House after a screaming match over annexation
New book reports that Trump-Netanyahu relations hit a very low point in 2020 that has not been revealed until now
The following is an excerpt translated from Hebrew from the new book "Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East," by Barak Ravid. The book, published in Israel, is only available in Hebrew so far:
At any given moment during Trump’s term, relations between Israel and the United States were better than they were during Barack Obama’s time in office.
But former White House officials told me that from February 2020, after the presentation of the Trump plan until the announcement of normalization with the UAE in August of that year, Trump-Netanyahu relations were at their lowest.
A month after the presentation of the Trump plan, Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer arrived at the White House for a meeting with Jared Kushner. This was before the third round of elections in Israel.
All the frustrations and tensions that had accumulated on both sides in the weeks leading up to this meeting boiled over, the details of which are being published here for the first time.
Dermer claimed that the farce of Jan. 28 would hurt Netanyahu in the March elections.
“You brought the prime minister to the White House, and in front of the whole world he agreed to all sorts of things despite being in the midst of a campaign,” he told Kushner according to a former White House official.
“He agreed to all of this because he knew he had a promise from America he could go forward with annexation.”
Kushner did not remain silent and the conversation got heated.
“We have done for you more than any other American administration in history,” he told Dermer. “Don’t think that everything that has happened in the last three years has been because of you. We did it because we wanted to.”
The Israeli ambassador continued his attack, claiming that Netanyahu did not know if he could trust the Trump administration more.
“To say such a thing about us is disgusting. Get out of here!” Kushner shouted and kicked Dermer out of his office.
A former White House official told me that Kushner liked Dermer and considered him cool-headed and a good balance who could placate Netanyahu during disagreements.
“This time Kushner felt it was too much,” the former White House official told me. “Dermer said things he should not have and Jared was not in the mood to take it.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
