The Abraham Accords, clinched in 2020 but now undermined by the war in Gaza, show how Trump might manage the Middle East crisis if voters return him to power
The Abraham Accords represented “one of the reasons” for the Oct. 7 attack, which “obstructed and complicated all strategies and agreements … that deny the freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people,” said Abbas Zaki, a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, the political faction that controls the Palestinian Authority. The attack, he added in an interview, “put the Palestinian issue back on the international agenda.
Brokered by Kushner, the Abraham Accords came about in secret, separate from established State Department procedures and instead enabled by affluent associates of the president and his family. Trump himself had little involvement in the discussions and at times seemed unenthusiastic about the breakthrough because it fell short of his aspirations for Middle East peace, according to former American officials.
“I think the Abraham Accords were incredibly important, but this disaster that we’re living through is a reminder that you cannot secure Israel simply through diplomatic work with Sunni nation-states,” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
During these discussions, Trump conceptualized barriers to peace as a series of “stumbling blocks,” the former aide said. Among them was the status of the U.S. Embassy in Israel, which Sheldon Adelson, the late casino magnate and Republican megadonor, wanted him to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Kushner’s networks reached beyond Israel. New York investor Rick Gerson, a Kushner friend who vacationed with the Emirati ruling family, introduced him during the transition to the Emirati leader Mohamed bin Zayed and his national security adviser, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said Gerson is not a Trump supporter.
The first was a row in July 2017 over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque is part of the site known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and as the Temple Mount to Jews, and it’s a perennial flash point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.