US envoy Kushner says Israel acting ‘a little irrational’ in Gaza due to elections, affirms agreement on outcomes

Peloni:  Kushner previously suggested a timeline which would have Hamas disarmed within a month and yet nearly a month has passed and not a single gun has been collected.  Proof lies in the proving and Kushner once again has failed to do more than offer failed promises in place of concrete actions, while distracting the public with  descriptions of Israelis as being a little irrational, which risks undervaluing the work of those in Israel who are trying to help Gazans who want to leave. 

Rather than promising disarmament that will never materialized, Kushner’s negotiating efforts might be better directed towards helping Gazans who want to relocate to actually do so. Indeed if the goal is to find a better future for the Gazans it would warrant US support to help move them outside of a city-wide war zone.  Hence, it is worth asking why U.S. support for the movement of Gazans has been intentionally withheld. International law treats forced displacement as a war crime, but it is equally worth considering whether forcibly keeping people inside a war zone—where they are exploited by a recognized terror group as human shields—deserves the same scrutiny. 

A constructive path forward would see US backing for Ben Gvir‘s proposal for voluntary emigration from Gaza, incorporating Avi Abelow‘s suggestion of shortening the timeline from seven years to as quickly as logistically possible, while also leaving Israel free to fulfill the terms of the 20-Point Plan and eliminate the still armed Hamas.

Trump envoy acknowledges extreme militarization of Gaza Strip under Hamas

J. Micah Hancock | All Israel News |  Published: September 7, 2026

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu review the U.S. peace plan for Gaza with Jared Kushner, Monday, September 29, 2025. Photo by The White House – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and peace envoy, Jared Kushner, said on Sunday that Israel is being “a little irrational in certain regards” over the situation in Gaza.

Kushner’s remarks came during a visit to Kyiv for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia regarding the ongoing war in that region.

“We’re working through some political issues in Israel,” Kushner said. “I think we agree with them on the end state; they just have a crazy election and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards, but we’re very determined and we’re working through these things.”

Kushner recently visited Israel, meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Israeli leader rejected the 15-point Gaza plan proposed by the Trump administration.

Israel cited a lack of trust in Hamas’ commitment to disarm, after multiple senior officials of the terror organization have rejected disarmament over the past few months. 

In announcing the rejection of the plan, Netanyahu said, “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”

Following the meeting with Kushner, Netanyahu reiterated that the IDF would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is disarmed.

Speaking in Kyiv, Kushner also discussed some of the difficulties involved in implementing the U.S. plan for Gaza.

“There’s a new government, a Palestinian technocratic government, that’s neither the PA nor Hamas, that’s built a plan to go forward,” Kushner said, referring to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which was founded as part of the Trump plan.

Kushner acknowledged that Hamas’ refusal to disarm has prevented progress in implementing the plan, echoing previous statements by the Gaza Board of Peace. 

“You can’t go in if there’s guns. You can’t send a government in to a place,” Kushner added.

He also acknowledged that Washington is only beginning to understand the extent of Hamas’ militarization of the Gaza Strip, an issue that Israel has been warning about for years.

“By the way, we’re now starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza, it is beyond your comprehension,” Kushner stated, “and so demilitarizing it is not going to be easy. We worked with Hamas for over four months; you talk about interesting people to be working with, and they signed an agreement saying they were going to demilitarize.”

The United States has been negotiating with Hamas for over four months, Kushner said, which resulted in the terror group agreeing to hand over its weapons. 

Several right-wing parties in the coalition government have expressed support in recent days for encouraging voluntary emigration from Gaza, a proposal the U.S. government does not support.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power party, recently reaffirmed his intention to pursue “voluntary emigration” from Gaza, which he has been pushing for since the start of the Gaza War.

In a recent campaign speech, Ben Gvir said that 250,000 Palestinians could be encouraged to leave the Strip within a year, with as many as 1.9 million – most of Gaza’s population – potentially leaving within three years.

Critics have described the proposal as ethnic cleansing, while the forced displacement of civilians can constitute a war crime under international law.