President Donald Trump shocked many critics over the weekend when he suggested what amounts to an ethnic cleansing operation of removing Palestinians completely out of their homes in Gaza.
Judd Legum, the progressive commentator who runs the Popular Information newsletter, doesn't believe that this "radical" announcement should be surprising to anyone and he connects the dots of what Trump proposed to the investment portfolio taken up by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In short, writes Legum, "Follow the money."
After Kushner left the White House when Trump was voted out of office in 2020, he founded a private equity fund called Affinity Partners that is focused on large real estate projects and that raised massive sums of money from Middle Eastern governments such as Saudi Arabia.
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He then points to comments that Kushner has made in the past about potential development projects in Gaza that could be accomplished if Palestinians are kicked off the land.
"In a February 15, 2024, interview at Harvard's Middle East Initiative, Kushner described Gaza's 'waterfront property' as 'very valuable,'" observes Legum. "Kushner said Israel should seek to 'move people out' and then 'clean it up.' Further, Kushner said that the United States should pursue 'diplomacy' with Egypt to convince them to accept more Palestinians. He also indicated Jordan should accept Palestinian refugees, noting that Jordan had accepted Syrian refugees."
This interview mirrors the exact same measures that Trump took over the weekend when he pushed for Egypt and Jordan to take more Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
Additionally, Trump has in the past echoed Kushner's comments about Gaza having prime waterfront property that's ripe for development.
This leads Legum to conclude that "if Palestinians are removed from Gaza and the land is absorbed by Israel, both Kushner and Trump could benefit financially from its redevelopment."