Netanyahu struggles to control Israeli right in run-up to Trump
The Israeli right is taking matters into its own hands as uncertainty over US President-elect Donald Trump's diplomatic strategy reigns.
Just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to deal with allegations of a conflict of interest regarding the submarine deal with Germany and devoted his entire agenda to the legal and media handling of the crisis, came reports of the diplomatic indiscretions of the chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, in New York.
On Nov. 21, Netanyahu learned from information published in the press, among other sources, that Bennett used his visit to the United States in his second role as minister of diaspora affairs to meet with three advisers of President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 20. According to the reports, Bennett asked them to transmit a message to the president-elect that he shouldn’t rush to adopt the two-state solution as an official policy. He presented them with his economic-diplomatic plan, which includes the creation of a Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank with investments in infrastructure development, alongside a gradual inception of Israeli sovereignty through the annexation of settlements.
