Kushner bullish on expanding Abraham Accords after the election, in possible knock on Netanyahu

US special envoy Jared Kushner expresses optimism about expanding the Abraham Accords, but says progress on that front would have to wait until after the October 27 election.

The remark may be a knock on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, whose hardline policies toward the Palestinians have turned off countries from normalizing relations with the Jewish state.

Kushner is asked in an excerpt of a Fox News interview that aired Tuesday whether the Abraham Accords normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors could still be expanded during the remainder of US President Donald Trump’s second term in office, which ends in early 2029.

“We have a lot of very good, active conversations going with countries — some obvious, some not obvious,” Trump’s son-in-law responds.

“Once we get this Gaza situation moving forward, that will hopefully deescalate the tensions here,” he says, referring to his efforts to advance the US-controlled Board of Peace’s plan for Hamas’s disarmament and an Israeli withdrawal. The plan has been approved by Hamas, but rejected by Israel.

He then notes a second factor that has held up efforts to expand the Abraham Accords.

“Israeli politics are complicated, and Israeli politics in an election are even more complicated. Hopefully, when we get after the Israeli election, there will be some opportunities for expansion,” Kushner says.

He doesn’t explicitly call out Netanyahu’s government, though Arab diplomats have long maintained that the hardline coalition in Jerusalem has become a primary obstacle in expanding the Abraham Accords. Netanyahu’s government opposes Palestinian statehood, with some ministers pushing for Israel to annex the West Bank. Saudi Arabia has conditioned normalization with Israel on progress toward a Palestinian state.

Nonetheless, Kushner says Trump is committed to building on the initiative he launched during his first term, when he brokered normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

“Everyone always said we can’t have normalization [with Israel] until the Palestinian issue is resolved. But what we showed through the first batch of the Abraham Accords, is that the Emiratis are actually the biggest donors to Gaza, and they’ve done a ton to help the Palestinian people,” he said, referring to Abu Dhabi funding over 40% of the humanitarian aid for the Strip during the recent Israel-Hamas war.

“It’s only by having relations with Israel that they’re able to help the Palestinians hopefully achieve a better outcome for themselves,” Kushner argues.