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Jared Kushner Is Back, and His Imprint Is All Over the Gaza Deal
The man who had sworn off any formal role in President Trump’s second term has been at the center of every decision
WASHINGTON—Before President Trump declared a breakthrough to end the war in Gaza, a tense behind-the-scenes negotiation unfolded at the White House over a humbling apology Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to deliver.
Top officials, including Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, scrambled to get the language right, according to people involved in the process. At the center of every critical decision was a man who had sworn off any formal role in Trump’s second term: Jared Kushner.
Inside the Oval Office on Sept. 29, the president’s son-in-law and former adviser stood watch as Trump handed a phone to Netanyahu to call his counterpart in Qatar and apologize for a Sept. 9 missile strike in Doha aimed at Hamas leaders. The attack had incensed Trump, and an apology from Netanyahu to the key U.S. ally was crucial to peace negotiations.
Fine, Netanyahu relented before the call: “What do you want me to say?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shown calling his counterpart in Qatar to apologize, in this photo released by the White House.
With the apology delivered, Trump walked into the State Dining Room with Netanyahu a while later to unveil a 20-point peace plan that Kushner also helped craft alongside Witkoff.
“You don’t find anybody more capable,” the president said of Kushner on Monday, before his son-in-law departed with Witkoff to Egypt to complete negotiations for a first phase deal to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas and establish a cease-fire in Gaza.
It is a remarkable public re-emergence for Kushner. He and his wife, Ivanka Trump, who also previously served as a senior White House adviser, decamped to Miami with their three children and signaled they would recede from politics after the bright glare of Trump’s first term. Kushner began building the investment firm Affinity Partners, whose substantial financial ties to Middle East governments have drawn scrutiny given his focus there in the first administration.
Kushner has for months tapped those contacts as he advised Trump on Middle East policy and worked with Witkoff on the peace plan—and his influence has been quietly felt in other areas.
The 44-year-old has been a sounding board for administration officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on a range of issues, according to people familiar with the discussions. Kushner has advised Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on trade negotiations with China, according to the people, drawing on experience from Trump’s previous economic battle with Beijing. A driver of bipartisan criminal-justice legislation in the first Trump administration, Kushner has also been loosely involved in talks about additional policy.
Corporate leaders have called Kushner to take issue with some of his father-in-law’s policies, including the impact tariffs could have on global trade, according to people familiar with the conversations. One of the people noted that Kushner has declined to take any concerns to the White House.
President Trump, with his granddaughter Arabella Kushner and son-in-law Jared Kushner, during the national anthem at the U.S. Open tennis tournament last month.
If the peace plan proceeds, Kushner and Witkoff will be deeply involved in a Gaza reconstruction effort. They are in early discussions with developers seeking to pursue Trump’s vision of a “Riviera of the Middle East,” and Kushner has been in touch with associates who could serve on a governance board, according to people familiar with the preparations.
Kushner’s return hasn’t slowed his business pursuits.
Affinity Partners last week closed a $55 billion deal with private-equity firm Silver Lake and the Saudi Public Investment Fund to take over videogame maker Electronic Arts, the largest leveraged buyout of all time. He also recently co-founded Brain Co., an artificial-intelligence startup with tech investor Elad Gil and Luis Videgaray, a former Mexican foreign minister who Kushner worked with in the first Trump administration.
Affinity Partners, launched after Trump left office in 2021, got started with an initial $2 billion investment from the Saudis and has since drawn funding from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. That has raised questions, not just from Democrats but from some Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), who in 2023 said it “crossed the line of ethics,” given Kushner’s work on the Middle East during the first Trump term.
“I don’t think anyone’s ever said that I’ve broken any rules or not followed the laws, and I’ve been very scrupulous in doing that,” Kushner told The Wall Street Journal in September 2024.
Last week, when a reporter asked about Kushner’s work on matters involving countries Affinity Partners has received funding from, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the question as a “despicable” suggestion, adding: “Jared is donating his energy and his time to our government, to the president of the United States, to secure world peace, and that is a very noble thing.”
It was Kushner who urged Witkoff to take the job as Trump’s Middle East envoy. Witkoff, 68, has long known Kushner’s family from New York real estate circles. Witkoff attended Jared and Ivanka’s wedding in 2009.
Jared Kushner with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in July in New Jersey.
“There’s a symmetry between us,” Witkoff said of his work with Kushner, which had intensified after Israel’s Sept. 9 strike on Hamas political leaders in Qatar. The attack came with little warning to Trump. It was especially shocking to Witkoff and Kushner, who days before had huddled at Witkoff’s Miami home with Ron Dermer, a lead Israeli negotiator, to go over a peace plan for Gaza.
But from that came an opportunity, as Witkoff, Kushner and other Trump administration officials built support among Arab countries for what became a 20-point peace plan. Trump gave the green light to proceed after being briefed by Kushner and chief of staff Susie Wiles aboard Air Force One, on his way to a memorial for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 21, according to people familiar with the matter. Witkoff, who flew on his own jet to the memorial, was connected by phone.
A major component of the plan is a transitional governance system overseen by a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and an economic development plan. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would be heavily involved, according to the proposal.
Kushner opened his deep Rolodex to win support. Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management, is among the business leaders who have been asked by Kushner to help with the redevelopment, according to a person familiar with the matter. Rowan has privately shown interest in helping once the plan is in motion.
Key to it all was the apology Netanyahu delivered from the Oval Office on Sept. 29. Trump pushed him to do so, saying apologies can be good for the soul, according to people familiar with the conversation.
Netanyahu read an apology—crafted, in part, by Kushner and Witkoff—by phone to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, for violating the nation’s sovereignty, according to people familiar with the events.
Kushner later watched from a front-row seat in the State Dining Room as Netanyahu and Trump announced the details of the peace plan. Both leaders acknowledged his role.
Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com and Brian Schwartz at brian.schwartz@wsj.com
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