On Monday night, Jared Kushner discussed the Middle East peace process with Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News. In the interview, Kushner seemed to indicate that the administration has shifted from its initial “outside-in” approach to its peace plan back to the traditional “inside-out” approach.

Hannity: It seems like there’s a moment where there is a new alliance or coalition emerging against Iranian hegemony and a potentially nuclear-armed Iran — has that process been hurt as a result of the Khashoggi killing? 

Kushner: “I think our intelligence agencies are making their assessments and we’re hoping to make sure that there’s justice brought where that should be. We’re focused now on the broader region, which is figuring out how to hopefully bring a deal together between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That conflict has gone on for way too long. The President has been very focused on trying to bring all the different parties together and we’re hopeful. In the next couple of months, we’ll put out our plan, which again, not every side is going to love, but there’s enough in it and enough reasons why people should take it and move forward. And this plan will keep the Israeli people safe, give them a good future, but also give a real opportunity and hope for the Palestinian people so that they can live much better lives.”

“And it’s not just the Israelis that want it, it’s not just the Palestinian people who want it, it’s all the people I speak to throughout the entire Middle East, who’d like to see this issue resolved so that they can start focusing on a brighter future.”

Elliott Abrams emails: “I would say they are trying to take a middle position, having concluded that neither outside-in nor the more traditional approach will work alone. That is, any plan needs to appeal both to Arab states, and to at least some Palestinians. When Kushner refers to ‘all the people I speak to throughout the entire Middle East, who’d like to see this issue resolved so that they can start focusing on a brighter future’ it’s clear that outside-in remains part of their calculus.”

Aaron David Miller: “I think that Kushner et al are still very much wedded to MBS and the Arabs in whatever plan they produce. There’s been some recognition that the Saudis aren’t free agents when it comes to endorsing a pro-Israeli peace plan and obvious sensitivity over MBS’s role in killing Khashoggi. But when you add it all up, what’s really new in the Kushner plan or attractive to Netanyahu are the Arab states. For Bibi, the entire peace plan is somewhere between a migraine headache and a root canal operation. The Arabs give him cover.”