Israel’s political crisis adds to the farce of Trump’s Mideast project

White House adviser Jared Kushner's fledgling skills in diplomacy may now pale in comparison to his unintended sense of comedic timing. President Trump’s son-in-law landed in Israel on Thursday on a mission to gin up support for the administration’s long-mooted (and much-maligned) peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians. But his arrival coincided with the collapse of the Israeli parliament amid an unprecedented political crisis.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close Trump ally and family friend of Kushner’s, failed to build a ruling coalition and was compelled to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and call for fresh elections in September. In April, he eked out what he thought was a narrow victory against centrist challengers. But thwarted by rivals within the Israeli right, Netanyahu has seen his mandate crumble. And his hopes for ramming an immunity law through the Knesset to shield himself from looming corruption cases also took a probably fatal hit.

Netanyahu is still on course to becoming Israel’s longest-serving prime minister later this summer, but it’s under circumstances he must loathe. For Kushner, who entered the maelstrom alongside U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and senior State Department official Brian Hook, it’s a miserable state of affairs.

Read the full article and more in The Washington Post.