Lieberman Calls for New Settlement Deal

Local Editor

The "Israeli" entity's War Minister said Wednesday that the entity should seek a deal with President-elect Donald Trump to allow expanded construction in major illegal West Bank settlements while freezing building in remote areas of the occupied territory.

If accepted, the proposal would further undermine understandings between Palestine and the "Israeli" entity.

Avigdor Lieberman's comments came as "Israeli" lawmakers try to gauge how Trump will address the issue of the occupied West Bank settlement construction, which the US and much of the international community view as illegal and an obstacle to resolution.

Pro-settler "Israeli" legislators have welcomed Trump's election, seeing his rise as offering the entity a freer hand in settlement policies.

Lieberman spoke shortly after the "Israeli" Parliament gave preliminary approval to a contentious bill that would retroactively legalize hundreds of units in West Bank settlements that sit on private Palestinian land.

The bill has drawn heavy international criticism and faces tough legal questions, although many hard-liners are also hopeful things will change after Trump takes office in January.

Under President Barack Obama, illegal settlement construction became a major flashpoint between the "Israeli" entity and its most important ally.

"If we get permission by the administration" to expand building in the settlement blocs, "we have to grab it with both hands," said Lieberman, who as war minister also helps oversee settlement policy.

During his campaign, Trump had appeared to be more sympathetic to the "Israeli" entity than Palestine. He has vowed not to impose any solutions on the entity and promised to move the US Embassy to al-Quds [Jerusalem], half of which has been occupied by the "Israeli" entity since 1967.

The unpredictable Trump also raised some concerns in the "Israeli" entity during the election campaign by suggesting he would stay "neutral" on the conflict and that the entity should repay the billions of dollars of military aid it receives from the US.

Trump's campaign platform made no mention of a Palestinian state, and many of his close advisers hold hawkish, pro-"Israel" views. Since being elected, he has indicated interest in brokering a solution to the Palestinian-"Israeli" conflict.

The pro-settlement separatists that dominate "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition notched a victory with Wednesday's Parliament vote on the settlement bill.

In other developments, a regime-backed "Israeli" bill to limit the volume of calls to prayer at mosques had been blocked by the "Israeli" entity's ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Netanyahu had backed the controversial bill, which regime watchdogs had called a threat to religious freedom.

It had been due to get its first reading in the entity's parliament this week until the so-called Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, stepped in. Litzman appealed the bill Tuesday night, saying it could affect similarly loud Jewish prayers, "Israeli" media reported.

The bill, proposed by members of an "Isreali" far-right group, was adopted by a ministerial committee Sunday and was due to go through three readings in Parliament before becoming law. The bill will now be put on hold until a ministerial committee holds a second vote.

It was drafted in response to noise from mosques, but would in theory apply to all religious institutions - including synagogues.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team