Israel intends to take full advantage of the transitional period
Aclose associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summed up in a few words the logic behind the ongoing frenzy to expand illegal settlements in Israel. “These days are an irreplaceable opportunity to establish our hold on the Land of Israel, and I’m sure that our friend President (Donald) Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu will be able to take advantage,” said Miki Zohar, a member of the Likud Party, according to a story published in the Christian Science Monitor. By “these days,” Zohar was referring to the remaining few weeks of Trump’s term in office.
Trump’s defeat ignited fears in Tel Aviv, and heated debates in the Knesset, the legislative branch of the Israeli government, that the new US administration might challenge Israel’s unhindered settlement expansion policies. Indeed, not only was Israel allowed to expand existing settlements and build new ones throughout Trump’s term, it was actually encouraged by US officials to do so with a great sense of urgency.
David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, is an ardent supporter of rapid expansion and was handpicked for his role not because of his diplomatic experience — he has none — but to help facilitate US support for Israel’s colonial expansion. Friedman was entrusted with communicating the ominous new American agenda regarding Israel’s illegal actions in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the Syrian Golan Heights. In June 2019, he rather clumsily articulated the new US position on the illegal settlements when he said, during an interview with the New York Times, that “Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”
This green light to Netanyahu translated, in January this year, into an announcement by Israel that it intended to formally annex nearly a third of the West Bank within a few months. The illegal annexation was set to take place on July 1. Just prior to that date, Friedman resurfaced, this time with a less coded message: That Netanyahu’s annexation had the full backing of the US government. He told Israel Hayom newspaper that Washington was preparing to acknowledge the Israeli move to apply sovereignty in “Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical reference to the West Bank.
Annexation did not materialize as grandly as expected. Instead the Netanyahu government opted to cement its de facto annexation of Palestinian land by announcing plans to build more settlements, barring Palestinian farmers from reaching their land and accelerating the policy of home demolitions.
Months before Biden became the US president-elect, Israel seemed to be preparing for the possibility that the Trump administration might not be reelected. Certainly, while a Biden presidency is bound to remain unconditionally supportive of Israel, the new administration is likely to return to old policies pertaining to the “peace process” and the two-state solution.
Netanyahu has long been averse to such rhetoric because, in his view, such unnecessary delays will cost Israel precious time that could be invested in building yet more settlements. Therefore, the coming weeks are likely to reveal even more coordinated Israeli-US moves as the Trump administration seeks to fulfill Netanyahu’s political wish list while it can, leaving Biden with little political room for maneuver.