Israeli MK requests support for settlement annexation from Trump

Israeli minister Naftali Bennett, the head of Jewish Home party and a well-known opponent of Palestinian statehood, met with three members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s team on Sunday, and requested support for the annexation of West Bank settlements.

According to the report in Haaretz, Bennett “asked that the new administration not rush to embrace a two-state solution, but rather examine alternatives to the official American policy that prevailed during the Bush and Obama administrations.”

The paper suggests that it was these meetings which “prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a directive to his cabinet members on Monday not to hold direct talks with Trump’s team.”

Haaretz, citing “sources familiar with the details of those meetings”, says Bennett suggested that the Trump administration “examine his plan” for “Palestinian autonomy on steroids” in parts of the West Bank, along with incremental annexation of other parts (such as the Ma’ale Adumim settlement).

“Trump’s team took note and said they would pass on his ideas,” Haaretz reported.

According to the paper, “it is thought that Bennett arranged the meetings with Trump’s team in order to present a position which countered the one presented days earlier by Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in an effort to show that there are other views held in the cabinet.”

Lieberman last week suggested that Israel could secure an agreement with the US for construction in so-called “settlement blocs”, in exchange for a freeze in more isolated settlements.

Also last week, Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer became the first foreign ambassador to meet Trump since his election victory, holding discussions “with the president-elect and his senior advisors at Trump Tower in New York.”

After the meeting, “Dermer told reporters that Trump and his staff are great friends of Israel, and that he looks forward eagerly to working with them”, specifically mentioning Steve Bannon “despite the vehement opposition to Bannon’s appointment by a long list of Jewish organisations.”