Trump's son-in-law's quick journey to the White House

Jared Kushner, the White House senior adviser on the Middle East, has no previous experience in politics. He, however, now sits in the closest room to the oval office.

Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, married Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka in 2009.

He was born in January 1981 (he's 37) ago to a wealthy Jewish family in the real estate business. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors. 

His father, Charles Kushner's family enterprise owns scores of apartments and skyscrapers worth billions all over the States, but mostly in New York.

After finishing his studies at a modern orthodox Jewish school, Jared — an average student with average marks — made it to the prestigious University of Harvard. (In his book “Price of Admissions”,  the American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Golden pointed out that the Kushner family made a $ 2.5 billion donation to the university at the time of Jared's admission.)

The young Kushner was an ambitious man and during his studies, he started selling and buying properties worth millions of US dollars. In 2006 he acquired the New York Observer, a weekly New York city newspaper. Despite no prior experience and turbulent relations with several editors-in-chief, he increased the publication’s profits.

Before getting to the White House, Kushner was a Democrat. He donated to the party and endorsed Obama’s race from his newspaper’s columns. 

Things changed when his father-in-law said he was running for president in 2015, Jared Kushner decided to get on board. He led the campaign’s social media team which greatly contributed to Donald Trump’s success. Kushner had the US president’s ear since the very beginning and was appointed assistant to the president and senior adviser shortly after Trump’s swearing-in. The people who stood in his way were ousted from the White House.

A Saudi delegation visiting the newly elected president, identified in Kushner the key to get Riyadh’s relation with Washington back on track after the difficult times under the Obama administration.

It was in this framework that Jared Kushner befriended Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. 

Life has not been easy in the American political arena for Jared Kushner. His name was at the centre of the investigation on the Russian meddling in the US elections. He met Russian officials several times during the campaign and even omitted informing the committee deciding on his security clearance to access secreted files.

But he survived and is now working on one of the hardest assignment any American diplomat would have: finding a stable solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Together with Trump’s chief international negotiator Jason Greenblatt and an ever-expanding dedicated team, Kushner is carving the so-called 'deal of the century’ which would end decades of hostilities between Israel and Palestine.

Jared Kushner sees himself as a businessman and a deal maker and believes that history can be put aside. He is convinced that through economic measures and benefits, Palestinians will ultimately digest whatever deal the US propose.

Israel could not find a better ally, but Palestinians have made it clear that they do not intend to discuss any plans proposed by this administration.

Tens of seasoned negotiators and politicians from all over the world and all walks of life have not found a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. 

To think Jared Kushner could succeed where they have failed seems far-fetched, but he has proven to be capable of surprising everyone.