The euphoria that spread across the Israeli right on the night that Donald Trump was elected was in some ways reminiscent of Israel right after the 1967 Six-Day War. Some Israelis saw Trump as the envoy of the Messiah who will complete the divine process that began in 1967, when Israel defeated Jordan and captured Judea and Samaria, the birthplace of the Jewish people, and liberated King David’s capital in East Jerusalem.

Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of that war. And for the first time, there is a real chance that the United States of America, Israel’s official patron, will lift its opposition to the occupation in a historic change of course. Ever since the morning of Nov. 9, various spokespeople for the Israeli right have competed among themselves to find the most enthusiastic superlatives to describe the president-elect and to sketch out settlement-expansion plans for immediate action. They wanted to strike while the American iron was still red hot.

Naftali Bennett, the chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi, overshadowed everyone when he made the festive assertion that the results of the US election mean that “the era of a Palestinian state is over“. He went on to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce Israel’s annexation of all of West Bank’s Area C, including all the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. While many cautioned Bennett to wait patiently until the Trump administration formulates its policies, a source close to Bennett, speaking on condition of anonymity, quoted him as responding, “This requires leadership. We must demand this of ourselves — first and foremost — and only then from the international community”.

Read the full article at Al-Monitor.