Israel is stepping up its settlements in the occupied West Bank, approving 3,000 housing units, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced promotion of an entirely new West Bank settlement Wednesday, defying the United Nations Security Council resolutions from December, The New York Times reported.
"We are in a new era, where life in Judea and Samaria [aka the West Bank] goes back to its normal and proper course," defense minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement, according to the report.
Palestinians, long seeking resumption of talks for a two-state solution alongside Israel, derided the Israeli advancement.
"This is a government of settlers that has abandoned the two-state solution and fully embraced the settler agenda," Husam Zomlot, adviser to the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, told the Times.
President Donald Trump has vowed "I'm very, very strong on Israel," which has "provided an unprecedented opportunity for wider expansion," the Times reported.
"Now we have a historical time to build in all of Judea and Samaria," Yesha Council head Shilo Adler, who represents the settlers, told the Times. "Take this very bad story, and think what we can do now, like after the rain."
Netanyahu is slated to meet with President Trump in Washington on Feb. 15.
"Instead of making peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet spend time making peace with the settlers, which at the end of the day, is their preferred partner for the future of the Jewish state," Mitchell Barak, a pollster and political consultant, told the Times.
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