Settler supporter to be Trump’s Israel ambassador

The next US ambassador to Israel is a patron of the settlements who has argued that talk of a two-state solution “needs to end”.

Donald Trump has picked David Friedman, a lawyer and a senior officer in a powerful settler movement, as his envoy to Israel. Friedman, an Orthodox Jew, is president of the American supporters of Bet El Institutions, a not-for-profit that runs a yeshivah, a hardline website, an ideological newspaper and other projects in the Bet El -settlement.

Friedman seems to have long ago shared his enthusiasm for this cause with Trump. According to media reports, in 2003, Trump donated $US10,000 to Bet El Institutions in Friedman’s honour. 

The Friedman appointment will mark a 180-degree turn in the positions of the US Embassy in Israel, which has until now been highly critical of settlements. Friedman is for settlement building, and is open to the idea of Israel extending sovereignty over the West Bank – in other words, annexing the territory. He has suggested that Trump would also be open to annexation. 

The selection of Friedman is an “alarming development for the State of Israel”, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, Israel’s leading anti-settlement -pressure group, told The AJN, echoing dismay heard among many on the Israeli left.

Ofran said: “We believe it’s a bad sign for Israel, in terms of what the new administration has in store for the country. It signals that the new administration will not care so much about the construction of settlements and the destruction of the two-state solution.” Israel’s Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog refrained from criticising the appointment, but said that Friedman must “learn” that most Israelis are against annexation and are for the two-state solution. 

The senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has warned via Palestinian media that if Friedman acts on his right-wing beliefs, backing annexation and moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it “would send this region down the path of something that I call chaos, lawlessness and extremism”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “very pleased” with Trump’s choice, according to sources close to him. The pro-settlement Jewish Home party was delighted, and its leader Naftali Bennett called Friedman a “great friend to Israel”. 

The main settler umbrella organisation went even further. Its chief foreign envoy Oded Revivi told The AJN: “I can personally attest that David Friedman is a true lover of all of Israel, who has visited and supported the Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria for decades. His knowledge of the real issues on the ground will greatly improve Israeli-American relations and build the realistic bridges needed to bring true peace.”

Friedman’s selection came during an otherwise difficult few days for Israel’s settler right, as it finally accepted that the West Bank outpost of Amona will be razed, and that attempts to prevent the evacuation – ordered by the Supreme Court two years ago – have reached a dead end. 

For the last two years this Sunday has been earmarked as the date that Amona must be evacuated, because building took place on privately owned Palestinian land.

This is to happen, despite -last-minute campaigning, but -settlers managed to drive a hard deal with the government. The 40 Amona families this week agreed on an arrangement which, while requiring them to evacuate in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling, will in effect give them two new settlements nearby at the state’s expense and hundreds of thousands of shekels each in compensation. 

The cabinet budgeted $47 million for the evacuation, rehousing and compensation. According to the deal the clearing of Amona will be delayed by a month. 

The deal between the state and Amona settlers is expected to pave the way for a voluntary evacuation and avoid the clashes between settlers and Israeli security forces that had been feared. However, it looks possible that the deal could lead to court challenges against the replacement settlement. 

The Israeli-run Palestinian rights group Yesh Din says that the replacement community is set to be built on land that is privately owned, and one landowner is ready to mount a legal objection. Yesh Din has said that concessions to Amona settlers are “illegal, immoral and unreasonable”. Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union party said that the deal proves that the government “caves to -strongmen”. 

Pro-settler politicians are hoping that this will be the last outpost evacuation. They are pinning their hopes on planned legislation that would retroactively legalise outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land. This legislation is now expected to be advanced once Trump takes office, and diplomatic pressure against such a move is reduced. 

Friedman is unlikely to oppose moves to strengthen Israeli control over the West Bank. He wrote in a column last year: “As a general rule, we should expand a community in Judea and Samaria where the land is legally available and a residential or commercial need is present – just like in any other neighbourhood anywhere in the world.”

NATHAN JEFFAY