Jared Kushner’s vision for Gaza as a gleaming port city clashes with reality

“No plan B”

Kushner sounded optimistic Thursday, saying “there is no Plan B” beyond his vision and telling world leaders in Davos that he wants “New Gaza” to be “a hope, a destination, to have a lot of industries and to really be a place where people can prosper and have good jobs.”

“We think this really gives the people of Gaza an opportunity to realize their aspirations,” Kushner said, with a slide suggesting that Gaza could have an estimated GDP of “more than $10 billion” by now. 2035.

The United Nations Office for Project Services says Gaza contains more than 60 million tons of rubble, enough to fill nearly 3,000 container ships. It will take more than seven years to clear it, they say, and then it will take longer to clear it.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly ridiculed the U.N. estimate as “laughable.”

“Their ‘estimates’ are just as useless as their broken escalator,” she said, referring to an escalator malfunction during Trump’s visit to the organization’s headquarters in September.

There is also some skepticism that Israel will accept Kushner’s plan, which appears to include building a new port and airport after a year-long blockade.

Israeli officials did not respond to questions about their views on the plan and how they might adapt to the military reality on the ground.

A project with so many high-rise buildings would never be acceptable to Israel if they provided a clear view of its military bases near the border, said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an associate researcher at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.

“No one cares what the so-called U.N. experts and think tank quarterbacks think,” Kelly said of security concerns.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Israel to “establish a military government” in Gaza and allow its colonization by Israelis.

No Palestinians are appointed to the executive board of the Gaza Peace Council, although Kushner praised the work of Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian planning minister who was put in charge of the separate technocratic body meant to control daily affairs in Gaza.

Kushner, whose family runs a real estate company, credited work on the plan to Yakir Gabay, a Cypriot-Israeli real estate mogul with stakes across Europe, who was named to Gaza’s board.