Kushner visits Israel at 'worst time' to bolster support for his peace plan

Son-in-law and a senior advisor to President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner's visit to Jerusalem to bolster support for his Israel-Palestine peace plan met political chaos after an overnight political crisis in Israeli plunged the country into a months-long election campaign.

Kushner is in Israel for the final leg of his Middle East tour before a US-led conference in the Bahraini capital of Manama where the economic aspect of the much-talked-about Israel-Palestine plan is scheduled to be finally unveiled, Al Jazeera reported.

The "workshop" in Manama being organised as part of the so-called "deal of the century" pushed by the Trump administration will not discuss the political aspects of the conflict, and instead will seek to encourage investment in the occupied Palestinian territories.

However, the Palestinian leadership, which has criticised the peace proposal, was not consulted about the Manama conference and is therefore not expected to address the core political issues of the conflict that includes issues related to the final borders, the status of Jerusalem, or the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh was quoted as saying last week that "any solution to the conflict in Palestine must be political ... and based on ending the occupation."

Meanwhile, a wave of political chaos gripped the entire Jewish nation yesterday as a month after the Israelis voted in a national poll, which took place on April 9, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government by a midnight deadline on Wednesday and chose to push parliament to dissolve itself, rather than risk political foe, Benny Gantz, snatching the premiership from his grasp.

New elections are set for September 17, and the next government may not take power until October, possibly later.

Political analyst Hani al-Masri said Kushner came at "the worst time" with Knesset dissolved following the failure of Netanyahu to form the government before midnight.

"The call for renewed Israeli elections in September means that the deal will be put on hold for another few months, aggravating the situation," Masri told Al Jazeera, speaking from the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.