Art of the Gaza deal

Trump's son-in-law is a big winner in ceasefire talks

- Andrew Roth

Despite having no formal role in the White House, Jared Kushner literally took centre stage as Donald Trump's emissary to the Middle East in Tel Aviv last Saturday.

As the administration took a victory lap for hammering out a Gaza ceasefire, Kushner stood in Tel Aviv's "hostages square", addressing a feverish crowd that had booed the mention of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later broke into chants of "Thank you Trump!"

"October 7 [2023] for me was a shattering day," said Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. "Since then, my heart has not been complete." He felt obligated, he said, "to see the hostages come home, to see their families get the closure they deserve, to end this nightmare. Also, to see the suffering end for the people in Gaza who, for most of them, were experiencing this through no fault of their own, other than being born into a situation that was horrific."

It was a remarkably diplomatic sentiment for a man whose boss had threatened to unleash "hell" in Gaza. But the soft-spoken real estate man has quietly become a key conduit for Trump's outreach to the Middle East, leveraging his file of contacts in the region and setting himself up for a major windfall if the redevelopment of Gaza ever comes to fruition.

It has been a return to the political fold after Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, effectively swore off politics following the US Capitol riot that followed Trump's 2020 election loss. Kushner, who manages billions of dollars in investments, including from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, now sits at the nexus of power in Washington DC.

Kushner, who was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey, had no previous experience in diplomacy before his father, the real estate developer Charles Kushner, put him forward to join Trump's first administration.

When Trump returned to the White House in January this year, he and Ivanka took no formal part in the transition.