Now, just who is crafting Mideast policy - the State Department or Kushner?

Kushner figures into the post below rather prominently, and the whole matter of his contact with Russians during the transition period a year ago bears watching.

But step back a level and consider what the overall situation is. He and his wife Ivanka are known to lean left of center on enough issues - the Paris Accord, family leave - to merit a left-of-center classification generally. He is a Washington newbie, a product of the New York skyscraper-buyning-and-selling crowd from which his father-in-law comes. And he gets to D.C. and is given this bulging portfolio that includes all kinds of things, including responsibilities that ought to be the purview of the State Department.

I'm speaking in particular of Mideast policy.

Which gets us back to the previous post. He is a practicing Jew, even got his wife to convert. Evidence points to his spearheading an effort a year ago to get major UN players to hold off on a vote condemning Israel for building "settlements" neighborhoods in the greater Jerusalem area.

So what's up with this?

The biggest indicator that Rex Tillerson should probably just walk, due to a lack of respect for his position is the continued existence of Jared Kushner as senior White House adviser.

One of many huge indicators that Jared Kushner is in over his head and that nepotism is really bad policy is the negotiations going on right now between Kushner and the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

So what are they talking about?

According to Bloomberg:

The central goal of the Kushner-Prince Mohammed negotiations, as described by two people with knowledge of the talks, is for an historic agreement featuring the creation of a Palestinian state or territory backed financially by a number of countries including Saudi Arabia, which could put tens of billions of dollars toward the effort.

A lasting Middle East peace treaty has been a U.S. goal for decades, and at the start of his administration Trump assigned the 36-year-old Kushner to head up the effort to make it happen.

Because nepotism…

Meanwhile, Tillerson is [rightly] freaking out. For starters, they’re not keeping the nation’s top diplomat in the loop. This is Kushner taking off on his own, doing his own thing. Daddy Trump gave him the green light.

Secondly, this is an incredibly sensitive issue, and that region is volatile, on its good days. Tillerson is afraid Kushner is going to bungle it so bad that all hell breaks loose.

And, once again, DJT's penchant for shooting off his mouth proves to have lasting and counterproductive reverberations:

Tillerson doesn’t believe Trump is even being informed about what Kushner is doing.
Kushner has grown close to the Saudi prince, so there’s this fear that he’s promised him things that he doesn’t have the authority to promise.

The State Department officials’ skepticism about the Middle East discussions also reveals ongoing frustration at the president’s decision to go around them and the U.S. diplomatic corps he frequently disparages. Instead, Trump placed delicate peace negotiations in the hands of Kushner, who has no experience in diplomacy and little background in the complexities of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Yet Trump, who has long spoken of Mideast peace as the ultimate trophy for a career dealmaker, has shown unwavering faith in his son-in-law’s ability to deliver.“If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can,” the president told Kushner onstage at a black-tie event celebrating his inauguration in January. “All my life I’ve been hearing that’s the toughest deal to make, but I have a feeling Jared is going to do a great job.”

I don’t know if that’s more naïve, reckless, ignorant, or a dangerous combination of all three. It most certainly shows an alarming lack of understanding of the region.

But, hey. Nepotism. 

Yesterday, both Tillerson and Trump reacted dismissively to published reports that Tillerson is on his way out. But do you really think the former CEO of Exxon Mobil is going to be willingly reduced to playing cleanup crew for a skyscraper-buyer who is winging it in the conduct of some of the world's most volatile relationships?