'Get out!' Kushner lashed out at Israeli ambassador during White House meeting, new book reveals

Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser during his time as US president, Jared Kushner, allegedly tried to expel the Israeli ambassador from a White House meeting, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid revealed in a new book.

"Get out!" Kushner allegedly shouted at Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the US at the time, after he told his American counterpart that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trust in the Trump administration was faltering.

"Don't be mistaken to think that everything that happened in the past three years was for you. We did it because we were serious about peace. To say such a thing about us is disgusting," Kushner added.

The meeting was held in February 2020, in the last months of the Trump administration. The relationship between the US and Israeli leaders had by then severely deteriorated, according to the claims.

Trump was frustrated by delays in implementing the US "Deal of the Century", which he attributed partly to Netanyahu, Ravid said.

The deal proposed to give Israel full control over contested Jerusalem, and was interpreted by Israel as a green light to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank.

But Netanyahu's insistence on continuing annexations endangered Arab states' buy-in to the deal. 

Trump was also allegedly aggravated by Netanyahu's failure to form a government in Israel despite several rounds of elections. 

As special advisor to Trump, Kushner spearheaded much of Washington's Israel-Palestine policy. Despite tense relations with Netanyahu in the last year of Trump's tenure, Kushner maintained good relationships with Israel.

Palestinians and most Arabs viewed the Trump administration as the most biased toward Israel in US history.

Kushner been looking to open an office to pursue regional investments with India, North Africa and the Gulf.

The Trump administration moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018, contravening an international norm that has seen states keep their embassies in Tel Aviv due to competing Palestinian and Israeli claims over the holy city.

Kushner is also credited with establishing controversial normalisation agreements between Israel and the UAE, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain in 2020. These normalisation deals were widely condemned in the Arab world for ignoring the continued occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel.