Dec 22, 2020
U.S. Ambassador got Israel David Friedman, left, and U.S. White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, right, pose with a plaque at the U.S. embassy designating the Kushner Courtyard. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, Pool)
BEN-GURION INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Israel (AP) Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner led a delegation from Israel to Morocco today on the first known direct flight since the two countries agreed to establish full diplomatic ties earlier this month as part of a series of U.S.-brokered normalization accords with Arab countries.
Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has overseen the diplomatic push that saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalize relations with Israel in historic agreements that also brought them major favors from Washington.
Uri Cohen 12/16/2020
Less than a week after United States President Donald Trump announced the normalization of ties between Israel and Morocco, a White House official revealed that the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner would soon travel to both countries to kick off formal discussion on the matter. According to a member of the administration, Kushner, alongside Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, will travel to Israel on Monday, where he will meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The American team will take off from Tel Aviv to Rabat the following day, accompanied by an Israeli delegation headed by National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. In Morocco, diplomats from all three countries will put words into action, and sign a series of MOUs on trade, direct flights and technological cooperation. In return for Morocco’s recognition of Israel, Washington on Thursday agreed to sanction Rabat’s annexation of the disputed Western Sahara territory, whil