Diane Feinstein Rips Bibi Over Settlements

Image by Getty Images
California Senator Dianne Feinstein laced into Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, after she said a decision by the Israeli cabinet to approve the creation of a new West Bank settlement proved the government was not serious about peace.
The announcement, the Jewish Democrat wrote in a statement, “demonstrates once again Netanyahu’s not serious about a two-state solution for peace.”
Ticking off 129 settlements that house 400,000 Israelis already, she said the push makes it “impossible to create a contiguous Palestinian state.”
The Emek Shilo settlement will be the first new Jewish housing bloc in two decades approved for occupied Palestinian land. This comes amid pressure from the Trump White House for Israel to freeze settlement building in outlying areas and focus those activities in area that it’s likely to keep under a peace accord with the Palestinians.
Feinstein has been a fiery voice from a liberal Zionist perspective. She voted against the president’s far-right choice for Israel ambassador, David Friedman, writing in an op-ed that he was a divisive individual incapable of being “a neutral arbiter for peace.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
- 4
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.