The list of summits, declarations, roadmaps, peace plans, and other presidential attempts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict is almost endless. Most produced nothing but an immense paper trail and a lifetime\u2019s worth of frequent-flyer miles for the participants. A few produced results completely opposite to what their naive architects intended, leading to increased bloodshed and pushing a solution even further away.<\/p>\n
White House adviser Jared Kushner at the ”2019 Prison Reform Summit” in the East Room of the White House in Washington (credit: REUTERS\/YURI GRIPAS)<\/p>\n
The Camp David Summit in July 2000 and the Taba Summit in January 2001 \u2013 hosted by Clinton and featuring Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat \u2013 gave us the Second Intifada. The US guarantees from George W. Bush \u2013 a piece of paper of no historical significance and no political weight beyond having been produced by a sitting president \u2013 led to the disengagement from Gaza<\/a>. The Oslo bug does not discriminate; even otherwise strong leaders like the late Ariel Sharon became infected and never recovered.<\/p>\n The bug has not affected its victims equally. Some have more or less recovered, feeling subdued with only periodic mild fevers returning. For others, the infection ran so deep and intense that they almost needed to be institutionalized. John Kerry, secretary of state under Obama, was and still is the most severe patient of the syndrome.<\/p>\n Under his tenure, the Arab-Israeli conflict became his sole preoccupation; Russia, China, North Korea, and other hot spots or strategic issues took a back seat. Kerry spent his time in office trying to convince Israelis that losing loved ones is far better than abandoning a dream of peace, and convincing Arabs that they can always count on the Oslo Syndrome to move Israel where no war or terrorism ever could.<\/p>\n Former defense minister Moshe Ya\u2019alon offered the most succinct and precise assessment of Kerry\u2019s state and a possible cure, noting that Kerry was operating with \u201cmisplaced obsession and messianic fervor.\u201d Ya\u2019alon added: \u201cThe only thing that can \u2018save\u2019 us is for John Kerry to win his Nobel Prize and leave us alone.\u201d<\/p>\n Jared Kushner, the latest victim of Oslo syndrome<\/p>\n The bug has not gone away, and no vaccine has been found. New victims keep showing up, oblivious to their affliction and ready to forge peace. The latest patient appears to be none other than Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law. Kushner\u2019s official government title is \u201cUnited States Special Envoy for Peace Missions.\u201d Never has a patient embraced his affliction so wholeheartedly and energetically.<\/p>\n For Kushner, the first symptoms appeared with the \u201cPeace to Prosperity\u201d plan presented between 2019 and 2020. It overshadowed all previous plans in the sheer scope of its dreams and hallucinations. The plan envisaged resolving not only the conflict between Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, but also all outstanding issues with Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan.<\/p>\n Its grandiose size did not prevent it from meeting the same fate as its less ambitious predecessors. Historical lore suggests the plan somehow helped bring about the Abraham Accords<\/a>, but those accords, much like the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty decades earlier, were local initiatives that the US merely helped facilitate in their later stages.<\/p>\n In October 2025, the bug led Kushner to meet with representatives of Hamas during negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire. A few weeks ago, he met again with senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya. The official line is that the talks are necessary to discuss the details of Hamas handing over power to an independent body. One has to be extremely naive and completely ignorant of precedent to believe that Hamas would hold direct negotiations simply to give up power and hand over its weapons.<\/p>\n