While it is certainly legitimate to be critical of the Trump administration, what is indisputable is Jared Kushner’s vital role in advancing normalization between Israel and Muslim nations. Jared Kushner gained tremendous trust in the Muslim world, including in Riyadh and when the Biden administration came into office the wave of normalization came to an abrupt end despite many Muslim nations at the time waiting to normalize relations with Israel.
The Biden administration should recognize that picking a side in the rivalry between Iran and Israel in the leadership race over Islamdom is a vital American national security interest indeed. It is in America’s interest to diplomatically strengthen Israel in Islamdom as much as possible and reversely weaken Iran in Islamdom as much as possible. This will also serve to marginalize the Chinese influence by creating robust and lasting triangular relationships between America, Israel and Muslim nations.
Biden hiring Kushner may seem counterintuitive but this would strongly serve the American interest in helping push back Iranian-Russian-Chinese influence throughout Islamdom. Yes this requires significant American engagement and there are expectations of provision of American incentives but the US government needs to recognize that Israel is the key player in protecting and enhancing American interests in Islamdom and keeping the major rivals at bay.
America is absolutely right to engage with Saudi Arabia and mediate Saudi-Israeli normalization as building an Israeli-led regional security architecture in the MENA region is a vital American national security interest indeed. However, many more nations must be included and the highly talented and internationally well-connected Jared Kushner could play a vitally important role in this regard even under Biden’s leadership.
Let’s face it, what is at stake is whether Islamdom will be dominated by the triad of Tehran, Beijing and Moscow or led by triangular relationships involving Muslim nations and Washington and Jerusalem. America is overstretched and will not be able to compete with an economically and military quickly growing China unless the American superpower engages in regional partnerships to empower its democratic allies, including India, Israel, Japan, Indonesia and the European Union and crucially so in partnership with regional non-democratic allies.
Islamdom is the new heartland of today’s geopolitics. Whoever controls Islamdom will become a superpower. It does make sense for America to not be seen as too overtly involved in Islamdom and rather be seen as a democratic inspirational model for the peoples of Islamdom. This is where triangular relationships between America, Israel and Muslim nations will advance American interests and roll back the advancements of Tehran, Beijing and Moscow. New triangular relationships in Islamdom will require initial diplomatic and security investments (and Jared Kushner could play an important diplomatic role in that respect) but will definitely pay off in the medium and long term. America needs to think in the long term because its adversaries certainly do.
Aliyah Organization 