After US President Donald Trump announced the long-awaited "Deal of the Century", his daughter-in-law and counselor Jared Kushner spoke directly to CNN reporter Kristin Emmanour and told her that some criticism of his efforts came from officials in Mediation between Palestinians and Israelis previously tried to make a solution, but they failed to resolve the conflict between the two sides.

Having worked on this very thorny issue for about two decades in American administrations, whether Democrats or Republicans, and given that I did everything in my power to criticize what I believed were those who had implemented the peace plan not qualified for that, I have no doubt that those whom Kushner mentioned are one of them. . Nevertheless, I do not forget to mention that Kushner, since he assumed his position as the President's peace envoy in the Middle East, has asked for my advice in addition to others.

4 lessons

What follows is the most important four lessons I give. And having been indifferent to my advice, it was never surprising to me the position on his plan. In the end, I was a failed peacemaker, and he made it very clear in his first conversation with correspondent Amanpour, and he was determined to deal with the issue completely differently from the previous one. I took my chance under a number of Democratic and Republican American presidents. And now it's his turn.

But I think my basic message has not yet arrived. My work was presented as a failure and in a way intended to prevent it from reappearing. I am not a fan of President Trump, but I have told Kushner that if he succeeds, I will be the first to celebrate him, and if he fails to offer anything credible, he can count on me to talk about it. Here's what I said to Kushner:

1- An impossible task:

The first time I met Kushner, I said sarcastically: I wish my father-in-law had the confidence that his wife-father had for him, because he had given him an impossible task. Given the great differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians on all major issues, especially Jerusalem and the borders, the deep mistrust between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the political differences between the two sides, the prospects for success of a grand plan are almost unthinkable.

He said that his wife's father wanted a huge peace plan, so I replied that it was wonderful. But you have to be careful. If he does not respect the issues at hand, and one party blatantly prefers the other, it will make matters worse.

2- Do not ignore the past:

I advised him not to ignore history, and quoted him as saying to the American writer William Faulkner: “The past never dies. It does not even turn into a past. ”It is taken from the novel“ The Saint and the Nun, ”and I explained to him that this applies to a large extent to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And if there is an issue where the past is the start and the beginning, then this is the ideal issue for that. Instead of ignoring what happened previously, especially with regard to the place where the two parties were, I advised him to study the issue carefully, and in a way that helps to create a different kind of future for them. It was not necessary for him to involve himself in history, but he could not ignore him. And I told him that if you don't know where you've been, chances are you will know where to go. History does not have to be a prison. But you can't pretend that it doesn't quite exist. But it seemed to me that he would do things differently, in his own way.

3- Do not be a lawyer for Israel:

I told him that I took this phrase (do not be a lawyer for Israel) from the memoirs of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and he tells it to former US Secretary of State James Baker, who loved and lived when he attended the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. This does not mean that the United States is not the closest An ally of Israel. Indeed, Baker had a good friendship with the then prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir, despite the tensions.

And she made it clear that Kushner's client is neither Israel nor the Palestinians, but a peace agreement. That is why you should urge the two parties to agree, otherwise you will never succeed. Kouchner said that he would lead Netanyahu to a situation where it would be impossible for him to say no to Trump, by making it clear to him that the United States is the primary supporter of Israel. I answered him that it was fine, but if he was pouring honey for Israel and mustard for the Palestinians, the chance of reaching an agreement would be zero.

4- What is success?

Ultimately, Kushner asked me how would I judge success? I told him that I would be happy the day after the peace plan emerged, when the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Europeans, and the international community as a whole will say: “In fact, there are things here that we do not like. But we must give the Trump administration credit for this plan, because it worked hard and honestly on these issues, and reached a framework agreement for negotiation that could lead to the agreement. ” If this were the reaction of the world, Kushner would have achieved a tremendous victory. Indeed, the last thing the United States needs is another failed peace plan.

The sad part is that we now have a failed plan, and it will be worse than failure if Washington gives the most dangerous light to Israel, in order to annex the Jordan Valley and most of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. But even if the Netanyahu government did not act in this way, the agreement tends to fulfill Israel's needs and requirements, and against the interests of the Palestinians in building the state and Jerusalem. Simply put, the plan does not form the basis for serious negotiations, let alone reaching an agreement.

But again it is likely, at a given moment, that after being given responsibility to solve the problem he realized he was unable to solve, Kushner's calculations could change to another metric for success.

Aaron David Miller is a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

We now have a failed plan, and it will be worse than failure, if Washington gives the most dangerous light to Israel, in order to annex the Jordan Valley and most of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. But even if the current Netanyahu government did not act in this way, the articles of this agreement are heavily inclined towards fulfilling Israel's needs and requirements.

• It is not necessary that history be a prison ... but it cannot be pretended that it does not exist completely.