At Sabanfest, Kushner unfortunately repeated some of the usual Saudi talking points.
"The Saudis care a lot about the Palestinian people, they believe the Palestinian people need to have hope and opportunity, and this has been a big priority for the king and the crown prince – finding a solution to this problem," Kushner said.
“I think that if we’re going to try and create more stability in the region as a whole, this issue has to be solved,” Kushner stated about the momentum for relations with between Israel and the larger Sunni Arab world. By “this issue,” Kushner was referring to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He more clearly stated that for a larger regional peace between Israel and the Arab world to be forged, “we have to overcome this issue of the Israeli-Palestinian issue in order for this to happen.”
Kushner is far from the first American to go to Saudi Arabia and come back spouting these same talking points. It happens so often to American diplomats and military people that there ought to be a name for it. Sauditis.
But there is a certain truth to it.
The Saudis don't give a damn about the "Palestinians." If they had, they certainly didn't show it after the Gulf War when Kuwait was ethnically cleansing huge numbers of them. Nor would Israel turning over more territory to the PLO and Hamas prove anything other than its unviability in the region.
And that will invite further aggression.
But the "Palestinians" are a useful barometer because of what they really are, a proxy war by the Arab Muslim majority against the indigenous Jewish population. As long as Arab countries push the "Palestinian" cause, they are signaling their commitment to destroying Israel.
Whatever other temporary alliances may form, their backing of the PLO sends a clear and unambiguous message that their long term goal is still, Death to Israel.