With Trump on way out, Netanyahu nails together settlement legacy - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Mazal Mualem

Mazal Mualem

Nov 17, 2020

President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the Abraham Accords Signing Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times) — US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 15, 2020, in Washington, DC. — Doug Mills/Getty Images

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from publicly declaring Joe Biden the president-elect of the United States. However, he is certainly preparing to face this reality by rushing to create facts on the ground before the changing of the guard in January 2021.

On Nov. 15, the State of Israel published a construction tender for the Givat Hamatos neighborhood in east Jerusalem to build 1,257 housing units on 10 sites.

Benny Gantz (C), A former IDF Chief and the head of Israeli Resilience party speaks to supporters during an election campaign event in Tel Aviv. Israelis will vote in a parliamentary election on April 9, choosing among party lists of candidates to serve in the 121-seat Knesset

Israel opens bidding for project in east Jerusalem

Rina Bassist

Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

A signpost is seen in Giv'at HaMatos, a neighbourhood on the southern fringes of Jerusalem's city limits where according to anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, Israel decided to move forward on a settler housing project slated for construction since 2012, October 2, 2014. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday in Washington. Netanyahu's visit was clouded by word of Israel's approval of the planned construction of more than 2,600 settler homes in mostly Arab Eas

The facts about buying land in Jerusalem's latest settlement

Akiva Eldar

Akiva Eldar

The silhouette of an Israeli boy is seen as he looks out from his home in Givat HaMatos on the southern fringes of Jerusalem's city limits May 17, 2012. Named after a plane that crashed there during the 1967 Six-Day War, Givat HaMatos may yet prove the place where Palestinian hopes of establishing a capital in Jerusalem also fall apart. Of all the obstacles blocking the way to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, the status of Jerusalem is arguably the most intractable. Picture taken May 17, 2012. T

New Jerusalem Neighborhood Threatens Territorial Solution

Akiva Eldar

Akiva Eldar

An eagle statue is seen placed on a Menorah sculpture donated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation (JASHP) dedicated to US President Donald Trump by the entrance to Trump Heights, an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on September 21, 2020. - Twenty Jewish families are due to move to the remote spot by the end of November, with the aim of 20 families arriving each year for the next decade. Trump Heights, or "Ramat Trump" in Hebrew, was inaugurated in June 2019 by Pr

Netanyahu goes for broke in Trump's last two months

Ben Caspit

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense