Financial Times legitimises charge that Jared Kushner's faith renders him unfit for Mid-East role

An article in the Financial Times yesterday, written by Katrina Manson and John Reed, explored the question of whether White House senior advisor Jared Kushner (Donald Trump’s son-in-law) can bring peace to the Middle East. The article (“Jared Kushner looks for a deal in the Middle East”) cited concerns expressed by many about Kushner’s lack of experience and questions regarding whether he’s suitable for such a demanding role.

However, there was one charge in particular leveled against Kushner, by anonymous “critics”, that caught our attention:

Which “critics”, we asked the FT journalist on Twitter earlier, suggested that Kushner’s Jewish faith renders him intrinsically biased and unable to serve as an honest broker between the Israelis and Palestinians?

.@KatrinaManson Which critic(s) said Kushner can't be impartial in his MidEast role b/c he's a Jew? An antisemitic charge, don't you think? pic.twitter.com/XDuMHUI53I

— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) August 8, 2017

Let’s remember that the Working Definition of Antisemitism defines as antisemitic what’s known as the “dual loyalty” charge – the toxic libel that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nation. Whatever one’s views on Kushner’s ability to carry out the difficult task assigned to him, the fact that he’s a “practicing Orthodox Jew” is completely irrelevant.

We followed up our tweet with an email to Financial Times editors. We’ll update this post when we receive a reply.