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MEET THE FAR-RIGHT SETTLER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU HAS TAPPED TO BE THE
NEXT ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.  
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Jonathan Ofir

Mondoweiss
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_ Yechiel Leiter, a hardcore settler leader once involved in Meir
Kahane's fascist Jewish Defense League, will be Israel's next
ambassador to the U.S. He will use his role to advocate for one of his
long-time goals: Israeli annexation of the West Bank. _

Yechiel Leiter speaking at the family leadership summit, a gathering
of Christian Conservatives in Des Moines, Iowa, in July 2024.,
Screenshot

 

Last month, immediately following the U.S. elections, Benjamin
Netanyahu made a new appointment to the role of Israel’s ambassador
to the U.S.: Yechiel Leiter. 

The move was not required
[[link removed]],
Michael Herzog’s term, the current ambassador, was not over for
another year. The move was clearly made to dovetail with
President-elect Trump entering office. 

The name Yechiel Leiter is not very familiar, but it likely will be
soon. He is a hardcore settler leader who has advocated for the full
annexation of the occupied West Bank. He is a full-on Kahanist, having
literally been a member of Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League
[[link removed]] in his youth.
The JDL was designated as a “right-wing terrorist group” by the
FBI, and Kahane is the inspiration that informs the Jewish Power party
and its leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who now serves as Israel’s Minister
of National Security. 

Leiter was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and emigrated to Israel at
age 18 in 1978. He quickly became part of the colonialist settler
movement in the West Bank and was one of the first residents of the
Admot Yishai settlement founded in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in 1984. There,
he established the Hebron Fund [[link removed]] advocating
and promoting settlement in the city, and later, in 1994, he founded
the One Israel Fund [[link removed]], a U.S. nonprofit
that raises funds for settlements.  

Leiter served as Ariel Sharon’s political advisor and as
Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff when Netanyahu was finance minister under
Sharon from 2003 to 2005.

Leiter was mentioned by Netanyahu in his speech to Congress on July 24
this year, since Leiter’s son was killed in November while executing
the Gaza genocide. At the time Leiter used his son’s funeral
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send a message to Biden that made clear his political fanaticism in no
uncertain terms, calling upon Biden to “cease and desist” from any
pressuring of Israel to stop the offensive:

 “Stand back, Mr. President: don’t pressure us. Let us do what we
know how to do, indeed what we must do, to defeat evil. This is a war
of light against darkness, of truth against lies, of civility against
murderous barbarism… Take it from one plain-speaking Scrantonian to
another – we’re going to win this one, with you or without you.”

Leiter is a political analyst at the neoconservative think tank
the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
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an organization primarily funded by Sheldon Adelson. He
also contributes
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the Kohelet Policy Forum [[link removed]], another
right-wing Zionist think tank that was behind Netanyahu’s
controversial judicial overhaul moves
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2023.  

Leiter is a strong advocate for the Abraham Accords
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Trump’s flagship plan to normalize relations between Israel and Arab
regimes without having to recognize Palestinian political aspirations
under a so-called ‘land for peace’ agreement. He is enthused about
the Accords’ contribution to “ultimate [Israeli] sovereignty”
over the West Bank. Leiter’s view on this should be seen in the
context of Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent statements
[[link removed]] about
2025 being “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,”
applying the biblical name for the West Bank. Besides being Minister
of Finance, Smotrich has a ministerial portfolio in the Ministry of
Defence, making him the effective governor of the occupied West Bank.
In this role, Smotrich claims
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he has “directed the start of professional work to prepare the
necessary infrastructure to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and
Samaria.” 

For Leiter, the whole project of settling the West Bank towards that
“ultimate sovereignty” is “the story of rebuilding Israel’s
heartlands
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and promises that granting citizenship rights to Palestinians in
annexed territory “simply isn’t going to happen.” He apparently
imagines Palestinians as permanently rightless subjects in the best
case. This is in line with Smotrich’s “Decision plan
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2017, which laid down his full apartheid vision – relinquish
national aspirations, emigrate, or be dealt with deadly force. This is
the plan that Smotrich is now carrying out, and Leiter appears well
placed to support. 

WORRIED RESPONSES FROM DEMOCRATS

Some Democrats in Congress have begun to express their concern
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the appointment of such an expansionist hardliner. 

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said, “I think the Netanyahu government is
going in the wrong direction, and this is another manifestation of
that” while Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) called Leiter’s connections
“concerning.” 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) went a step further and said it was a
“troubling choice given his history with the JDL and the Kahanist
movement and his current position on annexation of the West Bank.”

But Washington will be under Republican and Trump control and Leiter
is going to fit hand-in-glove. Trump is no doubt set to finish his
efforts to expand the Abraham Accords and shut down any Palestinian
hope for statehood once and for all. Leiter is a perfect man to
coordinate that with. Upon his appointment of Leiter, Netanyahu said
he “has a deep understanding of American culture and politics” and
that “Yechiel will represent the state of Israel in the best
possible way.” Indeed, Leiter is a perfect representative of the
culmination of many years of Israeli land grabs in Palestine and the
gradual imposition of colonialist sovereignty. 

PERFECT COMPLEMENT TO THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Trump’s appointment of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
[[link removed]] as
U.S. Ambassador to Israel creates a perfect complement to the
Netanyahu move with Leiter. Huckabee was a Baptist preacher and is a
Christian evangelical
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and his belief flows from the biblical “Abraham’s deed” (Genesis
15:18-21), Like Leiter, Huckabee is a total opponent of any sort of
Palestinian sovereignty and a fervent supporter of Israeli control
over the occupied Palestinian territory.

Huckabee identifies as a self-declared “unapologetic, unreformed
Zionist” and is such a strong supporter of the “greater Israel”
project that when visiting the settlement of Efrat in 2018 he said
he hopes to have a holiday home
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someday as he stood in front of a sign saying “Build Israel Great
Again
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“I’m not speaking for my government. I’m speaking for myself and
God,” he added.

We don’t know where this will end, but we can certainly see where
it’s going. Trump is seeking to make Israel great again, and
Netanyahu can’t wait.

_JONATHAN OFIR is an Israeli-Danish conductor, musician, writer and
blogger, writing regularly for Mondoweiss._

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