What Netanyahu's New U.S. Envoy Tells Us About His Plans for Trump, Gaza and the Saudis - Israel News - Haaretz.com
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to appoint as Israel's next ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, a writer and activist affiliated with the Israeli settlement movement, sends a strong signal about the prime minister's expectations regarding the incoming Trump administration.
Not only is Netanyahu not buying into the idea that Trump will try to promote a new peace plan with the Palestinians, but he seems to believe that the incoming president will support unilateral Israeli annexation of the West Bank and parts of Gaza.
Leiter is an ideologue who has been active in the settlement movement for decades. He was born and raised in the United States and was active in his youth in the Jewish Defense League (JDL), the far-right organization led by extremist rabbi Meir Kahane.
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JDL was later defined as a terror organization by the U.S. government, but by then Leiter had already immigrated to Israel and joined the Jewish settlement in the West bank city of Hebron, known as a hub for far-right Jewish extremism. He personally knew Baruch Goldstein, another American-born immigrant to Israel, who conducted a massacre against Palestinian residents of Hebron in 1994.
Leiter left Hebron in the 1990s and moved to Eli, a settlement north of Jerusalem. He became active in Likud, Israel's largest mainstream right-wing party, and grew close to Netanyahu, who appointed him as his chief of staff at one point in the early 2000s.
Over time, Leiter became an influential writer in Israeli conservative and religious publications. He published books in English and Hebrew against the peace process with the Palestinians and in favor of Israeli annexation of the West Bank. He was also deeply involved in the Kohelet Forum, the right-wing think tank that promoted the Netanyahu government's plan in 2023 to weaken Israel's judicial system and remove almost all the guardrails limiting the power of the Israeli government.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Yechiel Leiter, last year.Credit: Haim Zach / GPO
Exactly a year ago, Leiter experienced a personal tragedy when his son Moshe, an Israel Defense Forces reserve officer, died in combat in the Gaza Strip. After his son's death, Leiter became involved in an organization known as "Forum HaGvurah" (the heroism forum) which is made up of families of Israeli soldiers who have died in battle and who oppose a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza without the complete eradication of Hamas.
This organization has developed strong ties to Netanyahu's office, and the prime minister has often referred to it in attempts to explain why he refuses to sign a cease-fire deal that would enable the release of the hostages in return for an end to the war.
Netanyahu has quoted the families who take part in this forum as claiming that such a deal would mean that their loved ones had died in vain. Conveniently, the prime minister has never mentioned the fact that there are hundreds of families of fallen soldiers who hold the opposite position and are arguing in favor of a cease-fire and hostage deal in order to save the lives of the hostages who can still be rescued.
Protesters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.Credit: Moti Milrod
This background doesn't mean that Leiter, a thoughtful and respected writer with a deep understanding of American politics, isn't suited to serve as ambassador to the United States. He certainly has better qualifications than some previous ambassadors, such as Gilad Erdan, a Likud member appointed by Netanyahu to this crucial diplomatic position in 2020 due to political considerations despite lacking any relevant background.
Leiter has also strong ties to the Republican Party and to the right-wing, Orthodox elements of the American Jewish community; he will also try, undoubtedly, to reach out to Democrats and to the more liberal-leaning majority of American Jews.
It's important to understand, however, that his appointment reveals a lot about Netanyahu's plans for the incoming U.S. administration. Trump has stated publicly during the election and immediately after his win that he wishes to bring peace to the Middle East and end the wars raging in the region. Trump specifically appealed to Arab voters in swing states like Michigan, promising them to bring the wars in Gaza and Lebanon to an end.
Donald Trump at a Washington event in September on fighting antisemitism.Credit: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters
Some of Trump's advisers have also expressed interest in signing a historical agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia – something the Biden administration tried to achieve, but which was torpedoed by Hamas' October 7 attack.
The Saudis have made it clear time and again that such an agreement will require Israeli steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Netanyahu has refused to even discuss such an idea, because his governing coalition relies on the support of far-right, ultra-religious parties that want to officially annex these territories to Israel.
Any step toward Palestinian statehood will mean the implosion of Netanyahu's coalition as well as new elections, in which the prime minister is very likely to lose.
There's also a small chance that Netanyahu is misreading the room by appointing a settler leader to work with an administration that will push hard for an end to the war in Gaza and a regional peace plan with the Saudis that would require Israel to lay the groundwork for future Palestinian independence.
Trump is difficult to predict and has made contradictory statements on this issue over the years. But for now, Netanyahu is making his intentions extremely clear: His focus is on annexation, not normalization.