The long-awaited Middle East peace plan promised by President Donald Trump's administration will enable Israelis to "have the security they want, and allow the Palestinian people to have the opportunity that they want, while respecting a lot of the bigger issues," senior White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner said on Monday.
Kushner was speaking at a politics forum hosted by CNN.
He said that despite the perceived stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, "we've made a lot of progress … and the president's done a very good job of not allowing the old ways of thinking to constrain his actions."
Kushner has been tasked by Trump with leading the so-called "peace team," along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. The team has repeatedly said that the plan will call for compromises but they will not dictate the terms of a peace accord.
The administration has repeatedly shot down reports on the nature of the pending peace plan, stressing that it has not been shared with anyone outside the administration. It has also said the plan will formally be unveiled only when both sides are ready.
The Palestinians have said they will not consider any U.S. plan until Trump reverses his decision last December to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which was followed by the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
The decision outraged Palestinians, who envision parts of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Kushner told CNN that he was trying to go beyond previous paradigms to achieve a breakthrough, much as the president did when he decided on the Jerusalem move.
"I did the same approach, which basically was to go out and talk to people and to understand the situation today," Kushner said.
"I spoke to a lot of people in the region, I spoke to past negotiators, and what I realized very quickly was that we've been fighting about the same thing for the last 25 years, but not a lot's changed.
"And so we took an approach where we thought we would create a very in-depth document that goes through the issues. We thought something much more prescriptive. I've always found that when you're fighting over a concept, it's much easier to disagree than when you're fighting about specifics."
Kushner said that regardless of what shape the plan eventually takes, it would be up to the leaders on both sides to rise to the challenge and deliver peace to their respective peoples.
"If there's a reasonable leadership and there's a reasonable plan, then they'll come to the table," he said.
"I think that what we'll put forward will, hopefully, be something that people realize there are a lot more reasons to be for it than reasons to be against it. And I think that there's a bigger gap between the negotiators than there is between the people."
Last month, Trump voiced support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but ultimately said he would support whatever deal both sides agree upon.
