Former Likud no. 2: Take advantage of Trump win to build in West Bank

Popular ex-minister Gideon Sa’ar calls on government to expand construction in East Jerusalem and controversial E1 corridor

Former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar on Thursday called on the Israeli government to take advantage of the election of Donald Trump as US president to expand Israeli construction in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.

Sa’ar, a former interior and education minister before his retirement from politics in 2014, wrote on Twitter that the Israeli government must develop a construction plan he dubbed “Jerusalem Now,” which would would include wide-scale building in neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, as well in the E1 corridor near the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

Previous attempts to build in E1, which connects Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, have been met with stiff international opposition.

Palestinians claim construction in E1 would obliterate the possibility of contiguous Palestinian territory between Ramallah and Bethlehem, and cut off East Jerusalem, which they view as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Plans to build in E1 were frozen by Ariel Sharon’s government in 2005.

Republican president-elect Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech during his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in the early morning hours of November 9, 2016 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

Sa’ar also called urged the government to ask the US to move its Embassy to Jerusalem, as promised by president-elect Donald Trump during the campaign. Following Trump’s election victory on Wednesday, numerous right-wing Israeli politicians called on Trump to follow through on his pledge.

An Israeli settler looks at the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim from the E1 area on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner) — An Israeli settler looks at the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim from the E1 area on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

A widely popular figure in the ruling Likud party, Sa’ar was considered a serious challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the party and has criticized him in the past for his political maneuvers surrounding party leadership.

Many speculated that Sa’ar’s decision to retire from politics was the result of Netanyahu’s history of stymieing the rise of potential rivals in the party.

Earlier this year, an Israel Radio poll found that a new center-right political party with Sa’ar, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon and Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon, both of whom were also former Likud bigwigs and seen as potential party leaders, would get 25 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, knocking the ruling Likud party from its 30 seats down to 21.

Trump’s advisers have said since his election victory that they believe he will indeed move the US embassy to Jerusalem and that he does not regard West Bank settlements as an obstacle to peace.