Jared Kushner: How I Negotiated the Abraham Accords in Secret for 3.5 Years

Recorded live at Global Alts Miami, Jared Kushner sits down with iConnections CEO Ron Biscardi for a wide-ranging fireside on building Affinity Partners, negotiating the Abraham Accords in secret, and what a second Trump administration could actually look like. The conversation walks through Kushner's transition from White House Senior Advisor to $3.1B fund manager, why he believes "you always make your biggest mistakes in your freshman year" of a new career, and how first-principles thinking got him through the Middle East peace process when every predecessor had failed. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Why Kushner turned down a headhunter and personally interviewed hundreds of candidates for Affinity The one investing rule he learned watching the 2021-2022 market: "there's no shot clock investing" How the Abraham Accords went from three-and-a-half years of secret negotiations to a phone call that changed a region Why he sees AI infrastructure, energy transition, and nearshoring as the three trends worth overweighting The border problem he says is "completely solvable" and the three-step playbook to fix it Why "in business if you don't succeed, you don't eat" was the mindset shift he brought into government What actually happened on that first commercial El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi The Iran sanctions math: 2.6M barrels a day to 100K to 3M, and what it unlocked Why he thinks the Saudi-Israel deal still happens, "whether it's next week or two years" His answer on serving again in a second Trump term CHAPTERS: 0:00 On Brad Gerstner's Invest America and Teaching Kids to Pick Stocks 1:30 From Real Estate to the White House: Kushner's Three Careers 3:15 The Difference Between a Business Deal and a Political Deal 5:45 "I Was Going to Fail in an Original Way": Negotiating the Abraham Accords 8:20 Why Peace Deals Are Really Just Changing People's Minds 10:15 The Bureaucracy Problem and How to Get Anything Done in Government 13:00 Launching Affinity Partners with $3.1B in a "Very, Very Hot Market" 15:30 The Rule He Lives By: Freshman Year Mistakes 17:45 Why He Partners on Every Deal Instead of Competing 19:20 Global Trends: AI Infrastructure, Energy, Software, Nearshoring 21:40 Why the US Is Still the Best Market in the World 23:50 The Wall Street Journal's "Sluggish Start" Headline and His Response 26:30 The Border Is "Completely Solvable": Kushner's Three-Step Playbook 30:15 Why the Wall Became So Politically Charged 33:00 On Hyper-Partisanship and Whether Bipartisanship Can Return 36:30 The State of the Middle East After October 7th 40:00 The Iran Sanctions Math: 2.6M to 100K to 3M Barrels a Day 43:20 The First Commercial El Al Flight to Abu Dhabi 46:10 Why the Saudi-Israel Deal Still Happens 49:00 What a Second Trump Term Priorities List Actually Looks Like 52:15 Pragmatic Realism, Russia, and Why the Phone Stayed Working 54:30 Would He Serve Again? The Family Answer SPEAKERS: Jared Kushner, Founder, Affinity Partners Moderator: Ron Biscardi, CEO, iConnections #JaredKushner #AffinityPartners #GlobalAltsMiami Global Alts Miami brings together institutional allocators, fund managers, founders, and industry leaders to explore the trends shaping artificial intelligence, technology, private markets, alternative investments, venture capital, hedge funds, and global capital markets. Subscribe to the iConnections channel for more conversations with the world's most influential investors, founders, and allocators. DISCOVER ICONNECTIONS: Learn more: iconnections.io LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/53118918 Twitter: twitter.com/iconnections_io Instagram: instagram.com/iconnections_io