Kushner's Investment Firm Holds Over $1 Billion Stake in Israeli Firm Tied to Elbit, Other Arms Makers

Jared Kushner's investment firm doubled down on an Israeli financial conglomerate five days before Donald Trump's second inauguration. By January 2025, Affinity Partners held the largest stake in Phoenix Financial, one of Israel's largest insurance and asset management groups, according to a CNN investigation cited by Middle East Eye.

The stake began with a $128.5 million investment in 2024. CNN reports Affinity now holds 7.4 percent of Phoenix, worth more than $1 billion, after cashing out a third of its position in January for $340 million.

Phoenix has invested at least $456 million across nine companies tied to Israel's defence sector, the investigation found. The largest holding, $265.1 million, sits in Elbit Systems, Israel's biggest arms manufacturer. Elbit won roughly $200 million in Israeli defence ministry contracts for advanced airborne munitions in the past year, plus $48 million for 155mm artillery shells, according to the reporting. Middle East Eye and other outlets have previously traced Elbit weapons systems to Palestinian deaths in Gaza.

Phoenix's other defence-linked holdings include $68 million in Next Vision, which makes drone cameras for the military; $55 million in Bet Shemesh, which produces warplane engines; and $40 million in Reshef Technologies, which makes electronic artillery fuses. Bet Reshef has logged $165 million in Israeli military orders since the start of the war in Gaza, CNN found. Phoenix also holds stakes in Caterpillar, Israeli Shipyards and Boeing, companies tied to Israel's demolitions in the West Bank and military operations in Gaza.

Kushner has called Phoenix "Affinity's best investment."

The arrangement puts Kushner in a position to profit from wars he is simultaneously tasked with negotiating. He holds no formal U.S. government post and is not required to disclose his finances, but he sits as an executive member of Trump's "Board of Peace," charged with mediating the Gaza ceasefire and overseeing the enclave's reconstruction. He was also the architect of the initial postwar plan that floated turning Gaza into a tourist destination, dubbed a "Gaza Riviera" in leaked drafts.

Kushner's lawyers told CNN he never directed Phoenix's investment decisions. That account sits uneasily next to Kushner's own description of his relationship with the firm.

Kushner told Forbes in September 2025 that he had "a very active dialogue" with Phoenix and met regularly with its leadership.

Affinity's money is not American. The firm reported more than $6.1 billion in assets as of April 2026, with roughly 99 percent belonging to non-U.S. investors, chiefly Gulf states. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund put in $2 billion after the first Trump term, and Qatar and the UAE added $1.5 billion in 2024. Kushner, architect of the Abraham Accords, has spoken of using investment to draw Arab states toward normalization with Israel. CNN's findings show the flow running the other direction, with Gulf capital, through Kushner, landing in companies arming Israel's wars.