Abraham Fund for Morocco-Israel Ties Vanishes Under Biden Administration

The Abraham Fund, initiated by former US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, had been set up for an amount of three billion dollars. This fund seems to have disappeared after the advent of the Biden administration, reports Times of Israel.

The site notes that two stakeholders in the fund have resigned. First, its president, Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, the main advisor to the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman. Then the resignation of Adam Boehler, president of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), whose subsidiary was the Abraham Fund.

The PME Africaines site reports that it had promised in January 2021 an amount of $100 million to Morocco, which should be intended for Moroccan small businesses. The Biden administration has not yet appointed other people to replace these two officials.

In a statement to the Times of Israel, Dan Katrivas, director of the foreign trade department of the Association of Israeli Industrialists, said there was no transparency on the fund’s priorities and the nature of the investments it promotes. There was talk of "implementing investments in diversified areas in order to strengthen regional economic collaboration and prosperity in the Middle East and beyond".

Israeli officials who requested anonymity say they "feel the new US administration would like to lower investments in the region". If this is the case, it will be a loss for the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco who have normalized their relations with Israel.