Backstory Breakthrough

Close ties between Jared Kushner and Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, known as “MBS” (as well as his UAE counterpart, known as “MBZ,” to the media’s delight), were widely covered in mainstream media outlets, often in negative terms. The Guardian reported that the representatives of the “House of Trump and the House of Saud stayed up late into the night planning to remake the map of the Middle East.”

The New York Times reported that they were on first-name terms, speaking often, the result of a two-year Saudi “influence campaign.” In the wake of the gruesome killing of Saudi opposition figure Jamal Khashoggi in the country’s Turkish embassy, reportedly by MBS operatives — to which Kushner’s response was the diplomatic equivalent of a yawn — that criticism intensified. The young American’s diplomatic inexperience, the paper quoted former US officials as saying, left him open to Saudi manipulation.

But Kushner — whose friendship with the thirty-something MBS seems to have revolved around a shared millennial outlook and membership in the billionaires’ club, in a circle that includes Israeli-born WeWork founder Adam Neuman — has the last laugh over his detractors. His sphynx-like, youthful appearance is deceptive, as indicated by his fluent performances in rare media appearances. And in light of the breakthrough facilitated by his relationships, the naivete claim doesn’t hold water anymore.

As a more open society, the UAE is not identical to Saudi Arabia, but its breakthrough might well be a trial balloon for the real prize — normalization between Israel and the heavyweight of the Sunni world. In an interview with CNBC, Kushner himself made that claim, calling normalization with Saudi Arabia an “inevitability.”