The election of Yechiel Leiter comes days after Trump’s election victory and heralds a long-awaited shift in policy between the United States and Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose Yechiel Leiter as Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, days after Republican Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House.

Leiter, an American-born resident of an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, has long been an advocate for the expansion of illegal settlements. His election coincides with the Netanyahu government’s enthusiastic response to Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump took a staunchly loyal approach to Israel during his first term, particularly regarding Israeli settlements, stating that “the Jewish state has never had a better friend in the White House.”

In a statement on Friday, Netanyahu’s office noted Leiter’s past positions in the Israeli government, including as Netanyahu’s chief of staff when the prime minister was finance secretary. He has also served as deputy director general of the Ministry of Education and acting president of the Israel Ports Company.

In a statement, Netanyahu called Leiter “a highly capable diplomat, an eloquent speaker” with a deep understanding of American culture and politics.

Leiter, who was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, also the hometown of US President Joe Biden, has recently been a leading voice calling for more Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza and Lebanon – and their families – to play a larger role in the government. .

His son, Moshe Leiter, was killed in northern Gaza in November last year.

‘The most radical currents’

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Michael Omer-Man, director of Israel-Palestine research for Democracy for the Arab World Now, said Leiter has proven to be a savvy political actor “who has been working to boost American perceptions of the movement.” Israeli settlements and the justice of Israeli domination of the entire land throughout his career.”

Omer-Man added that Leiter “is someone who is ideologically aligned with the most radical currents of intellectual thought and the ideological movement of the Israeli settlements.”

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

Leiter continues to live in the Eli settlement, located north of Ramallah, according to Israeli media, and is listed as the founding president of a New York-based group. One Israel Fund – which supports settlers in the occupied West Bank.

His appointment underscores the Israeli government’s expectation of a broader, more permissive policy shift from the White House when Trump takes office in January.

During his first term, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and oversaw the restoration of diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries through the Accords. Abraham.

It also reversed the long-standing U.S. position that settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law. His first term in the White House saw an explosion of illegal settlements in the West Bank that continued after his 2020 election defeat.

While the Biden administration has repeatedly refused to tap US military aid to Israel to curb the expanding war in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlements have been one area where officials have raised concerns.

The administration has imposed sanctions on groups and individuals linked to settler violence, a move that some analysts believe Trump will quickly reverse. Last year, the United States summoned Israel’s current ambassador to the country, Mike Herzog, over an Israeli law allowing settlement expansion in the northern West Bank.

Omer-Man said Leiter’s appointment is likely a first step in laying the groundwork for broader annexation of the West Bank and possible efforts to resettle Gaza after the war. This last point has been pushed by the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, himself a settler.

Leiter’s appointment is “at least a concession by Netanyahu to the settlement movement, but probably more than that, it is an indication of where Netanyahu is headed,” Omer-Man said.

“We are going to see many more signs of this type,” he added. “The intent is simply to go much further than in Trump’s first term.”