The First Children

ALREADY, first names suffice to refer to the two thirty-somethings who, with little doubt, will become the most influential Jewish people in the world the moment that the new President takes office.

Jared Kushner, an Orthodox Jew and grandson of Holocaust survivors who arrived in America in 1949, is to be Trump’s senior White House adviser. In Trump’s words, the millionaire property developer is a “tremendous asset and trusted adviser throughout the campaign and transition”.

What’s more, he’s mishpocha. Kushner is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism via an Orthodox track before they tied the knot. The couple has bought a house near a Chabad synagogue in Washington and, over the years, have donated large sums to Chabad. They even made a visit to the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, just before the election.

Kushner will have Trump’s ear in the Oval Office, and his wife is expected to be at Trump’s side when they are out and about. Trump’s wife Melania isn’t moving to Washington for now, and isn’t expected to fill the traditional First Lady role. Ivanka is likely to accompany him to engagements, host visitors, and help with decision-making.

Further deepening Trump’s reliance on this couple, he has just told The Times of London that he’s assigning Kushner with the Israeli-Palestinian file. Will Kushner administer CPR to the flagging peace process, or give it the kiss of death?

Palestinians and people on the Israeli left are sceptical of his chances, noting that he has no diplomatic experience and comes from a family of big donors to causes that champion West Bank settlement, catering to people who mostly oppose the two-state solution. Others observe that Kushner is savvy and a talented deal-maker, and that sometimes envoys who truly have the backing of their bosses can succeed, as with Henry Kissinger and the Israel-Egypt peace of the ’70s.

American Jews have difficulty getting their heads around the strange triangle of power between Trump, his now-Jewish daughter and his trusted son-in-law, viewed alongside other elements of his White House team – and in the context of the election campaign that he waged.

Jewish groups were alarmed at his decision to choose Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist, despite claims that he will bring racist and anti-Semitic views to the West Wing, and despite criticism of the website he headed, Breitbart News, and its affiliation to the hardline alt-right.

The Anti-Defamation League, a mainstream organisation in US Jewry, opposed Bannon’s appointment because he represents ideas that are “so hostile to core American values”. The group’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, “It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premier website of the ‘alt-right’ – a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists – is slated to be a senior staff member in the ‘people’s house’.”

This appointment came after Trump received support from neo-Nazis during electioneering, and after an end-of-campaign video that was widely criticised by US Jewish organisations. The video was seen as an appeal to the alt-right. The villains in the video were Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and three figures were presented as propping up their allegedly corrupt and money-driven establishment – all of them Jews.

Now, ironically, the very people who were wooed by this video and its implied distaste for Jewish power have a President flanked by Jared and Ivanka.

But they also have Bannon with a great deal of influence, and a new reality in which the anti-Semitic alt-right flexed its muscles during the campaign and won’t be wanting to quietly return to the sidelines.

How will this play out? Nobody knows, but what we can predict is that if it’s bad for the Jews we’ll soon hear, and if it’s good for the Jews, there will be an anti-Semitic backlash and a new lease of life for the international Jewish conspiracy, with Ivanka and Jared presented as its stars.

NATHAN JEFFAY

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