Soon after Trump’s election victory in November, Bennett said the election meant that “the era of a Palestinian state is over."
By HERB KEINONNaftali Bennett(photo credit: ULPANEI REHOVOT)
Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett met with Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations on Sunday in Washington.Greenblatt is the official leading the US side in discussions with Israel about guidelines to govern Israel's construction policies in the West Bank. He posted on Twitter that he had “a far ranging and important discussion about US-Israel cooperation and interests,” with Bennett. He wrote that they discussed Trump’s “vision for peace and his thoughts on how best to achieve it.”Soon after Trump’s election victory in November, Bennett said a Trump presidency meant “the era of a Palestinian state is over."“Trump’s victory is an opportunity for Israel to immediately retract the notion of a Palestinian state in the center of the country, which would hurt our security and just cause,” he said at the time. “This is the position of the president-elect, as written in his platform, and it should be our policy, plain and simple.”Since that time, however, the hopes on the Right that Trump would both move the embassy to Jerusalem and give Israel a free hand in settlement construction have not been realized.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting that the talks between Jerusalem and Washington about the settlement issue were continuing and that he hopes "they will conclude quickly.”