‘No Plan B’
Kushner was optimistic on Thursday, saying “there is no Plan B” beyond his vision and telling world leaders in Davos he wants “New Gaza” to be “a hope, a destination, have a lot of industry, and really be a place where the people there can thrive and have great employment.”
“We think this really gives the Gazan people an opportunity to live their aspirations,” Kushner said, with one slide suggesting that Gaza could have an estimated GDP of “$10bn+” by 2035.
The United Nations Office for Project Services says Gaza has more than 60 million tons of rubble, enough to fill nearly 3,000 container ships. That will take over seven years to clear, they say, and then additional time is needed for demining.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly derided the U.N.’s estimate, saying it was “laughable.”
“Their ‘estimates’ are just as useless as their broken escalator,” she said, referring to an escalator malfunction when Trump visited the organization’s headquarters in September.
There is also some skepticism about whether Israel would agree to Kushner’s plan, which appears to include the construction of a new port and airport after a yearslong blockade.
Israeli officials did not respond to questions about their views on the plan, and how they may work alongside the military reality on the ground.
A project with so many high-rise buildings would never be acceptable to Israel if they provided a clear view of its military bases near the border, said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
“No one cares what the U.N. so-called experts and think tank armchair quarterbacks think,” Kelly said of the security concerns.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Israel to “establish a military government” in Gaza and allow its settlement by Israelis.
There are no Palestinians named on the Board of Peace’s Gaza executive board, though Kushner praised the work of Ali Shaath, a Palestinian former planning minister who has been placed in charge of the separate technocratic body intended to control day-to-day affairs in Gaza.
Kushner, whose family runs a real estate firm, credited work on the plan to Yakir Gabay, a Cypriot-Israeli real estate magnate with holdings across Europe, who has been named to the Gaza executive board.
The Associated Press contributed.
