Paper: Netanyahu planning unprecedented new construction

The Israeli Jerusalem post newspaper shed light on Tuesday on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's unprecedented construction plan in the West Bank settlements after US president-elect Donald Trump takes office. 

The paper said the move gave hope to settler leaders that massive construction will begin when Trump replaces Barack Obama as president of the United States.

Netanyahu told 60 Minutes last week that he was looking forward to working with Trump on a two-state solution.

But sources close to the prime minister said that neither Netanyahu nor the incoming president see West Bank construction as a hindrance to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Speaking at a Likud faction meeting on Monday, Netanyahu boasted of the success of the deal reached with residents of Amona that will allow more than half of them to remain on the hilltop in a different location. He told the faction that Amona was just the beginning.

“We will continue to strengthen and develop settlements, and I want to make clear: There is not, nor will there be, a government that gives more support to settling and cares more about settling than this government we in the Likud lead,” he said. “This will continue.”

Netanyahu is expected to be questioned about his plans for the Trump era and his support for increased West Bank construction on Tuesday when he meets with the foreign media at a pre-Hanukka event organized by the Government Press Office.

Sources in Bayit Yehudi said the party was preparing a list of what it will demand from Netanyahu after Trump is sworn in on January 20. The sources said the party views the election of a president unopposed to settlement construction and the appointment of settlement-supporting David Friedman as ambassador as a game changer.

“There is a unique window of opportunity now thanks to the changes in America, the weakening of Europe and the disintegration of the Muslim world,” Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett told The Jerusalem Post at the Knesset on Monday.

Bennett said the list included applying Israeli sovereignty to Area C in Judea and Samaria gradually, starting with Ma’aleh Adumim, as well as steps to “naturalize life in Judea and Samaria.”

Sources in Likud and Bayit Yehudi said the settlement regulation bill that would sanction some 4,000 homes built on privately owned Palestinian land would not be brought to its final readings until after Trump takes office.

Source: MENA