Kushner failed to disclose he led a foundation funding illegal Israeli settlements before UN vote

[DonViejo]

Source: Newsweek Magazine




JARED KUSHNER FAILED TO DISCLOSE HE LED A FOUNDATION FUNDING ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS BEFORE U.N. VOTE

BY CHRIS RIOTTA ON 12/3/17 AT 6:00 AM

Jared Kushner failed to disclose his role as a co-director of the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation from 2006 to 2015, a time when the group funded an Israeli settlement considered to be illegal under international law, on financial records he filed with the Office of Government Ethics earlier this year.

The latest development follows reports on Friday indicating the White House senior adviser attempted to sway a United Nations Security Council vote against an anti-settlement resolution passed just before Donald Trump took office, which condemned the structure of West Bank settlements. The failure to disclose his role in the foundation—at a time when he was being tasked with serving as the president’s Middle East peace envoy—follows a pattern of egregious omissions that would bar any other official from continuing to serve in the West Wing, experts and officials told Newsweek.

The first son-in-law has repeatedly amended his financial records since his initial filing in March, along with three separate revisions to his security clearance application. Despite correcting his financial history on multiple occasions, he has yet to include his role as co-director to the family foundation.

The omission was first discovered by a team of researchers at American Bridge, a progressive research and communications organization, and shared exclusively with Newsweek on Friday afternoon. The researchers suggested Kushner’s failure may have been more than an inadvertent mistake, but instead an attempt to avoid "potential conflicts with his job negotiating Middle East peace." Newsweek later independently confirmed Kushner's omission on his multiple financial disclosures.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-disclosure-form-west-bank-settlements-israel-white-house-729290

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. The (man) tasked with making peace w Arabs is funding hard right Jewish settlements on their land.nt

[Martin Eden]

8. That was my first thought

My second thought is that assigning Kushner the task of Mideast peace is perfectly in keeping with Trump's cabinet appointments -- people either totally unqualified for or diametrically opposed to the mission of the agencies they head.

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. I think the conjunction you are looking for is "and"

totally unqualified for and diametrically opposed

[Scarsdale]

2. Creepy little traitor.

Let his family go and live in Israel, since they represent their interests above the USA. How much more has to be exposed before this creep is removed from all his "jobs"?

[Hortensis]

13. This does NOT represent Israel's interests, Scarsdale,

it represents those of hard-right bigoted Israelis. The rest of the Israeli population oppose illegal and immoral settlements to various degrees, but certainly on average far more than we do.

Speaking of caring, how about our over 400 ICE detention facilities? All the people who were simply kidnapped while dropping their kids off at school, etc., instead of giving them even 6 months to wrap up their affairs and leave on their own? Same kind of people who've gotten control there have gotten control here.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center conducted a seven-month investigation of six immigrant detention facilities in the South, where immigrants are detained for months and sometimes years as they wait for their case to go through the court system. The group analyzed three private facilities and three run by county sheriffs.

"From facility to facility, their stories are remarkably similar accounts of abuse, neglect and rights denied — symptoms of an immigrant detention system where the failures of the nation’s immigration system intersect with the failures of its prison system," the report said.

Findings by the Southern Poverty Law Center include deaths of detainees while in custody, inadequate medical care, assaults by guards and servings of spoiled food. ...

[karynnj]

20. Actually support for the settlements is not a tiny minority among Israeli Jews

Here are two links that show polling in Israel. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/03/no-consensus-among-israeli-jews-about-settlements-impact-on-security/ and http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israeli-opinion-on-settlements-and-outposts-2009-present

The sad thing is that Israel is moving to the right and where speaking of Israel used to be easy and a source of pride in synagogues, many now try to avoid serious discussions - not on Israeli food, culture, dance etc.

[Hortensis]

22. You believe in one or two polls? :) But, as you point out, Israel has been

moving farther right. Fear reliably increases conservatism, and fear is being deliberately stoked by propagandists there and here, and of course many other places. Lots of things going on. Illegal settlements used to only draw militant religious zealots, but these days the lure of affordable housing draws all types, a form of seductive corruption of course. But while people may move somewhat left or right with circumstances, their basic orientations remain intact. Liberals may develop a firm right-wing position on some issue for a while are still mostly liberal no matter what.

[karynnj]

24. They were the first two I saw and they made the point that has been made

in many articles on Israel in Haaretz. Consider why Netanyahu was given the chance to form a government when Livni's coalition had more MK a few elections ago. The reason was the President of Israel saw that Netanyahu was the one with the easier chance of getting a coalition with 60 plus MK. The reason - there are more to the right than the left.

[Hortensis]

29. More persuaded to the right, yes. What is happening in

this nation is happening in many others around the planet.

[not fooled]

14. Or at least

yank his security clearance.

A sick joke, this one is.

[lastlib]

3. Please, Mueller, take this evil POS down!

And his daddy-in-law next!

[chelsea0011]

4. "Failure to Disclose" will be the title of a book about the trump administration

[not fooled]

15. Ooohhh good one

The movie too!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

27. The subtitle could be, "The Administration That Could Not Recall Anything"

[Cicada]

5. It would be heartwarming if Jared can serve in same prison his dad served in

That would bring back fond memories I guess.

In reality this is a sad story, another person swept to doom because of his association with Trump.

[not fooled]

16. Just more of an indication

that his family--like dump's--thinks they are above the law.

I look forward to the day when this clan of grifters and gangsters is run out of Washington. History will not be kind to them. And in a just world their "stature" in NY society will be gone, too. jarhead and iwanna will need to mount an extensive campaign to renovate their image, if that's even possible.

[karynnj]

21. Actually, in his case, he might have made it to jail even if he never met Ivanka

It would likely be lower profile -- and for something like breaking laws that set basic rules for landlords. He somehow missed learning anything about ethics in the Jewish day school he attended. It does not matter if he follows all the rules of Shabbat if he completely misses the essence.

[JDC]

6. Every Kushner disclosure submission must be blank

Just a signed, blank 3x5 card. "Good enough!"

[BadgerMom]

7. K & R

[2naSalit]

10. ...

[tazkcmo]

11. lock him up n/t

[Mosby]

12. the newsweek article uses aljazeera

As the source for the claim that the settlements are illegal. Do people see the problem with that?

Info for anyone interested:

http://jcpa.org/article/the-settlements-issue-distorting-the-geneva-convention-and-the-oslo-accords/

[karynnj]

23. One place was Beit El -- and this is from Haaretz

David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador-designate to Israel, heads an American fundraising organization that pumps a few million dollars a year into the settlement of Beit El. The parents of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, have donated many thousands to its institutions. The president-elect himself has made out a $10,000 check for Beit El’s residents.
<snip>

It is also way out there – 14 kilometers east of Israel’s internationally recognized border, to be precise. So unlike other settlements situated closer to the Green Line, Beit El, it is widely assumed, would be evacuated under any future peace deal based on the two-state principle. It would hardly qualify, then, as a sound long-term investment.


read more: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.765447

Are you arguing that a settlement - near Ramallah - is NOT illegal? Are you with HH in wanting "Judea and Samara" to be annexed to Israel? Are you in favor of 2 states OR one state where religion has no bearing on rights?

[Mosby]

25. I'm in favor of allowing Jews to live in their ancestral homelands

I also support a two state resolution to the conflict, but claiming that the settlements are illegal (which they are not) and expecting that a half a million Israelis will relocate guarantees that a permanent settlement will never be reached.

If you want an example of illegal settlement and transfer, take a look at what Turkey is doing in northern Cyprus.

Do you support a Muslim only Palestine?

Because that's why it's "widely assumed" that bet El would have to be evacuated.

[karynnj]

28. I think the assumption that they will be "evacuated" is because it is assumed by Israel

that they would not want to live in a Palestinian state with a government that is majority Palestinian. That is also why the language has been that the Palestinian state can not be like swiss cheese with "holes" that are governed by Israel.

If the two state solution simply led to a situation like that of Israeli Arabs, who can vote and have rights - for the Jews in the settlements I would have no problem.

If the people there decided on one Democratic state where religion does not determine rights, I would think it was an equitable solution and exactly what we have recommended everywhere else.

I also think the choice of word, evacuate, is interesting.

[yurbud]

17. so it's OK to talk about this now?

[Nitram]

18. Kushner is going down and he knows it. He may be counting on a pardon to save him.

[Julian Englis]

19. Lock him up! n/t

[underpants]

26. Was that wrong?