Image by ISRAeLI GOveRNMeNT PReSS OFFICe

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump wants to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about recent settlement expansion plans when they meet next month.

“He wants to have a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and we’ll discuss that,” Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday at the daily briefing for reporters when asked about the announcements.

Netanyahu and Trump spoke over the weekend, and Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House next month.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman this week said they had given the go-ahead to plans for 2,500 housing units in the West Bank. Additionally, a Jerusalem municipal committee this week approved 566 housing units in Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.

Spicer indicated that Trump, not yet a week in office and still without a secretary of state, is scrambling to set policy on sensitive issues, but is determined to move past the tensions that characterized the Netanyahu government’s relationship with the Obama administration.

“He has asked his team to get together” and study the settlement question, Spicer said. “Israel has continued to be a huge ally of the United States … he wants to get closer with Israel.”

The Obama administration opposed settlements and in its final month for the first time allowed through a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its settlement expansion. The departure of Obama has heartened advocates in Israel of settlement expansion.

On Trump’s campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Spicer said Monday that the new president had not yet decided when to make the move.

Also Monday, reporters asked Spicer if Trump had anything to say about the $221 million that the Obama administration transferred to the Palestinian Authority in its final hours on Friday, defying the wishes of leading Congress members who had put a hold on the funds in part because of concerns that Palestinian officials continue to incite violence against Israel.

Spicer refused to directly address the transfer, saying only that Trump would re-examine all expenditures overseas and domestic.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount