Trump’s administration ‘more openly in favour of settlements’
Ben Friedman, policy director at the Defense Priorities think tank, told Al Jazeera that the Biden administration was “hypocritical” when it came to any criticism of Israel, including its sanctions on Israeli settlers.
The administration “did almost nothing to back up their words of criticism of Israel and Netanyahu on the treatment of civilians in Gaza, the actions of settlers of the West Bank, expanding the war in Lebanon, Syria… but the one little thing they did was the sanctions against some of the settlers, which is almost a symbolic act”, Friedman said.
“Trump has undone that, and he’s not a hypocrite on this; he’s just more openly in favour of settlements… and even of abusing the human rights of Palestinians,” Friedman noted.
“So I think now we’re going to see an administration that’s even more devoted to… Israeli interests as defined by Netanyahu,” he said.
“If Israel, under this government… wants to annex the [occupied] West Bank, chances are the Trump administration will be there cheering for them to do it and stomping on the grave of the two-state solution,” Friedman said.
Trump’s pick for UN ambassador dodges question on Palestinian rights
Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations, refused to say whether she believed Palestinians have a right to self-determination.
Stefanik says Israel has a ‘biblical right’ to occupied West Bank
Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, says that she agrees with the statement that Israel has a “biblical right” to the occupied West Bank, a view that contrasts with international law but aligns with the vision of radical Israel settlers.
While Israeli settlers have been on the front lines of pushing for greater control of the West Bank for decades, they have benefited from direct and indirect assistance from the Israeli state and security forces.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen, who had asked Stefanik the question about the West Bank, said it would be “very difficult” to achieve peace and security in the region with such views at the centre of US foreign policy.
Stefanik’s view that Israel has ‘biblical right’ to West Bank signals big shift in US policy
This would mark a significant change in American policy, which, for a very long time, has been that there is a two-state solution in the Middle East between the Palestinians and the Israelis and that that should be established and put in place.
Effectively, Elise Stefanik [Trump’s pick to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations] is saying this is not the case here. She believes that the Israelis could take over all of the occupied West Bank.
Donald Trump did an interview in December when he was asked if there should be a two-state solution; he said he wasn’t sure what form any peace settlement in the Middle East would take even though he was on the record in 2020 saying that he supported a two-state solution.
So perhaps his view has changed and evolved, and now it’s reflected by his prospective UN ambassador.
‘The Israeli public is behind the settlers’
Menachem Klein, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, told Al Jazeera that the “settlement project” in the occupied West Bank is “a state-made project”.
The Israeli public is behind its army and behind the settlers, he said, adding, “It’s not an independent operation by extremists” but rather state-driven.
He said the combat units of the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank can be described as “extremists”, which will make it difficult for the Israeli army to control its troops there.
“Not all of them are settlers, but many of them are on the same page” and “share the same mindset” as the settlers, Klein said.
In the Jenin area of the occupied West Bank, established settlers are used to being able to relay instructions to the Israeli army on a daily basis he said.
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