MESOP NEWS : OPTIMISM IN ISRAEL – Israeli Right hails Trump: ‘The era of a Palestinian state is over’
How key US Senate races are shaping up for Israel – Optimism at Jerusalem pro-Trump election night event
Jerusalem Post 9 Nov 2016 – After congratulating President-elect Donald Trump, and thanking defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for her friendship to Israel, Bayit Yehudi chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett said “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. This is the position of the President-elect, as written in his platform, and it should be our policy, plain and simple,” he wrote.
Bennett’s statement came in the aftermath of MK Bezalel Smotrich’s (Bayit Yehudi) statement earlier on Wednesday. Smotrich seized on Trump’s abandonment of the two-state solution during the US presidential campaign. He said the idea of an independent Palestinian state was now “shelved immediately.”
“I urge the prime minister and the entire government to stand behind the settlements in Judea and Samaria, and announce today the construction of thousands of new housing units, planning and construction of new towns and cities, and to remove the blemish that the previous administration sought to implement – that the settlements are an obstacle to peace,” Smotrich said.
Speaking in the Knesset plenum, Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) gave his congratulations to Trump on Wednesday morning:
“Distinguished Members of Knesset, allow me to congratulate, on behalf of the Knesset and myself, the elected President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald J. Trump and Vice President elect Mr. Mike Pence. “I am confident that the longstanding friendship and alliance between the United States and Israel will remain strong during Mr. Trump’s term in office. “We send our best wishes to the American People and are certain that they will remain united in dealing with the challenges facing America and the world today. Good luck!”
Edelstein gave his address in English, an irregular step for Israeli politicians speaking in the Knesset.Likud MK Yehuda Glick congratulated the Republican candidate on his victory in Tuesday’s election.
“It appears that the American people are tired of hypocrisy and political correctness and prefer straight talk,” Glick said, Wednesday morning.
Glick expressed hope that Trump would “ascend the Temple Mount and lead from the source of light and energy a dialogue of world reconciliation and peace.”
The Likud MK invited Trump to “visit Israel and Judea and Samaria to see for himself, as he claimed, that settlement is the way to peace.”
Opposition MKs weighed in too, with Zionist Union co-leader Tzipi Livni congratulating Trump.
“Congratulations @realDonaldTrump,” she wrote on Twitter. “I hope for the US and the world that he actualize [sic] the promises of his acceptance speech, not the campaign.”
Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog also reacted, saying the campaign was indicative of “the continuation of a global trend of disgust with the old, power elite and the desire for swift and direct change.” He called the Trump election a “social, economic and leadership tsunami,” and said it could lead to change in Israel as well.
Joint List MK Bassel Ghattas told the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the elections would not change anything for the Palestinian people because the two-state solution ended when Netanyahu was elected, not when Trump was elected. He expressed hope that American institutions limiting the president’s power would “prevent him from doing nonsense.”
Likud Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said the the Israeli government would refrain from making a statement on the election until the official results were announced.
“The United States does not vote on Israel or the Middle East, but on internal matters,” Hanegbi said. He expressed hope that the next president would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem and change American policy toward Iran.Likud Minister Ophir Akunis addressed Trump directly on Twitter, writing: “Congratulations Mr. President Elect. The American people have spoken. The alliance between Israel and the United States is strong and will remain strong.”
Acknowledging the result, Dov Henin (Joint List) said that Trump won because of “angry majority disregarded by pollsters and analysts.”
“The anger at the establishment is not only understandable, but justified in the light of record inequality and the widening gap between rich and poor. There are lessons to be learned in Israel. People will be willing to join a movement for change if we make it.”
Striking a more ambivalent tone, Nachman Shai (Zionist Union) said the result was “not the end of the world.”
Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen said that Trump and Clinton hold almost identical policies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “and it doesn’t seem that the identity of the winner would have changed the US’s unfair mediation policy in the region, in which it automatically sides with Israel.”
Jabarin said that the only hope to salvage a two-state solution is a move by US President Barack Obama in his last two months in office to recognize a Palestinian state and support a UN Security Council resolution that would set a timetable for the formation of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines.
Likud MK Oren Hazan, who has attempted repeatedly to draw parallels between himself and Trump, said in response to the result that he had predicted the surprise outcome.
“My friends in the media, I don’t want to say I told you so, but it’s fitting,” Hazan tweeted.
Hazan compared media scrutiny of Trump to the scrutiny he himself has faced in the Israeli media.
“In the beginning, there were those who called Trump a clown (sound familiar?) and I answered that he would be the next president!,” Hazan added, sharing a video clip of an interview he gave to The Jerusalem Post in which he predicted Trump would win. http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Donald-Trump/Likud-MKs-react-to-Trumps-victory-in-US-Presidential-Election-472088