Senior Israeli settler leader welcomes Trump victory

A senior Israeli settler leader has warmly welcomed Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, in an open letter published by alt-right website Brietbart News.

Yossi Dagan, head of the so-called Samaria Regional Council in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, described newly-appointed Trump adviser Steve Bannon as “a strong supporter of Israel and a true friend to the Jewish people”, adding: “we look forward to your leadership in the White House.”

Dagan, who also sits on the Likud party Central Committee, said: “I am pleased that we, in the Shomron [an area of the West Bank], were first to openly support Donald Trump’s campaign and also opened a campaign headquarters here.”

Dagan continued: “I am glad that after eight hard years we now have decent minded people like yourself, coming to power in Washington DC.”

According to Haaretz, “this isn’t the first time Dagan has reached out in friendship to far-right political elements abroad associated with racist and anti-Semitic ideology.”

In 2014, he helped organise a Belgian delegation to Israel headed by hard-right nationalist Filip Dewinter, and in 2010, he “hosted the leader of Austria’s extreme right-wing Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache.”