Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize? Is Kushner more deserving?

FPI / August 18, 2020

According to the Nobel Prize Committee, it takes “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” to qualify for Nobel Peace Prize.

Last week, the Trump administration, led by Middle East point man Jared Kushner, brokered a deal in which Israel and the UAE agreed to normalize relations.

For that reason, Kushner should be in the running for the peace prize, former White House and Pentagon official Douglas MacKinnon wrote for The Times of Israel on Aug. 17.

But, MacKinnon noted, the chances of that happening "are zero."

Why? Because Kushner is the son-and-law and a top adviser to President Donald Trump and given all of the Trump haters out there it is pretty much impossible for Kushner to get an "unbiased and honest" assessment of his work toward Middle East peace, MacKinnon noted.

"There is no denying" that Kushner "has become one of the lead architects" of the Trump administration's Middle East peace strategy, MacKinnon wrote.

"Day by day and little by little, Kushner has been pushing Arab normalization with Israel. His premise was that if he could get one of the Arab countries to the table and sign, then others might eventually follow."

The UAE was the Arab country and the result was a historic agreement. "Surely, that’s at least worth inserting Kushner into the conversation for the Nobel Peace Prize," MacKinnon noted.

"The case for Kushner is bolstered by the fact that in 2009, the Nobel Committee curiously seemed to waive a requirement any accomplishments or demonstrable efforts when it awarded the then recently-elected President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for literally…doing nothing," MacKinnon added.

"The liberal and admittedly star-struck Nobel Prize Committee gave Obama the award in the hope – simply and only, the hope — that he would make 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.' ”

Beyond the Israel-UAE agreement, Kushner has played key roles in negotiations between the United States, Canada, and Mexico to replace NAFTA with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, the U.S.-China Trade negotiations, and getting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to the White House last year to meet with Trump and engage in conversations related to ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

"Barack Obama was handed the Nobel Peace Prize in the hope he might do something. Kushner has done something," MacKinnon noted.

"While the animus and even admitted hate many on the left feel toward his father-in-law have most likely doomed his chances, he has proven himself worthy of consideration."

Free Press International