Liberman urges settlement bloc building push

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman calls on the Israeli government to focus its interactions with the incoming US administration on reaching understandings that would allow Jerusalem to continue building inside the settlement blocs — even if that meant giving up the right to expand outlying settlements.

Liberman urges Israeli officials to wait until President-elect Donald Trump appoints his senior staff before commenting publicly on their expectations for future US policies. At the same time, he says he is ready to freeze building outside the blocs in exchange for an American agreement to expand settlements in Efrat, Ma’ale Adumim and other areas widely understood to remain under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace deal.

“We currently have a right-wing coalition in Israel and a Republican president and a Republican Congress. And therefore we can expect to be able to reach understandings vis-a-vis the Middle East, the issue of settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Iranian issue,” Liberman says, using the Biblical name for the West Bank in his first briefing to Israeli reporters since his Yisrael Beytenu party joined the government in May.

— Raphael Ahren