Who is Avrahm (Avi) Berkowitz?
It would seem another Middle East country is contemplating joining President Trump’s peace accords. One of prominent players in this effort is a little known young Jewish man.
Avrahm Berkowitz grew up in Lawrence, New York where he attended Yeshiva of Far Rockaway, an Orthodox Jewish high school. After his graduation, he went to Israel and studied at Kol Torah, an Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem. He returned to the United States in 2019 where he enrolled in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel of Baltimore. Eventually, he transferred to Queens College, where he finished his undergraduate work and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He went on to Harvard Law School.
During law school, Berkowitz taught undergraduate classes, including one called “Road to the White House,” years before he would campaign for Donald Trump. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he went to work for the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
After working on the campaign, Berkowitz joined the White House and, in 2018, was promoted, from Special Assistant to the President and Assistant to the Senior Advisor, to Deputy Assistant to the President and Advisor to the Senior Advisor. November 1, 2019, Berkowitz was promoted to Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations.
In 2019, White House advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt wrote a Middle East peace plan. Access to the plan was limited to four people, one of whom was Berkowitz.
In February 2019, Berkowitz flew with Kushner to six countries (Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Saudi Arabia) to unveil a the new closely guarded plan to bring peace to the Middle East. Berkowitz, also, played a key role in the U.S. decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Upon his promotion to the position for International Negotiations, the critical quick-take headlines were harsh. “Trump’s New Mideast Point Man Is Jared Kushner’s Former Coffee Boy Avi Berkowitz,” Vanity Fair wrote. And from New York magazine: “Trump Somehow Replaces Unqualified Mideast Envoy With Even Less Qualified One.”
What these benighted critics failed to take into consideration was the fact Berkowitz had lived and studied in Jerusalem, Israel for two years and how advantageous that would be in negotiations with Israel.
In January 2020, Berkowitz flew to Israel and with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Benny Gantz to discuss the possibility of releasing the Trump peace plan. January 28, 2020, saw the Trump Administration unveiled the plan in a ceremony at the White House.
It would appear the “coffee boy” was more qualified then was his predecessor.
It would seem the “peace accords” continue to move, rapidly, forward even in the face of the hysteria from career State Department officials. Even with John Kerry stating, on October 24, 2020,
“There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world. I want to make that very clear to all of you.”
How embarrassing that the “unPresidential” President, his son-in-law and “the coffee boy” have managed to accomplish what all before failed to accomplish.