Jewish leader hails Trump as ‘strong supporter of Israel’

The head of a leading Jewish organization in America has welcomed the election of Donald Trump as US president, describing him as “a strong supporter of Israel."

Jack Rosen, the director of the American Jewish Congress, made the comments in an interview published in The Guardian on Saturday, urging patience over Trump’s future policies and viewpoints.

“I expect Trump to be a strong supporter of Israel and to understand Israel’s security concerns. I think he’ll be a good friend … The election of Trump in the immediate term will be a bigger hug, call it that, with Israel [than would have been the case with Hillary Clinton],” Rosen said.

“Let’s give the president who won the chance to show his views. There’s time to respond to problems that may evolve,” he added.

The Jewish leader also in brief touched on the issue of conflicts between the Tel Aviv regime and Palestinians over the occupied territories and illegal Israeli settlements, putting forward a demand to pressurize Palestinians.

“It’s helpful not to put as much pressure on Israel than some presidents have in the past. I personally believe more of the pressure needs to be put on the Palestinians than the Israelis. I think American Jews from all factions would agree with that,” Rosen said.

The US and Israel are close allies but relations were often tense between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli settlements and the nuclear agreement with Iran last year.

The Obama administration has repeatedly criticized Israel over the settlement expansions, saying they make it difficult for Israel to reach peace with Palestinians.

Under the Trump presidency, analysts expect there to be less pressure from Washington to halt illegal Israeli settlement building, meaning the settler population will grow unchecked.

During his presidential campaign rallies, Trump promised to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem al-Quds and also pledged to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds, which are regarded by the United Nations and most countries as illegal.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital. However, the presence and continued expansion of the illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine have dimmed such a prospect.

According to the US-based a nonprofit organization Americans for Peace Now, the number of Israeli settlements has grown dramatically over the past 20 years, with the construction of 11,000 new settler units authorized under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli regime has defied international calls to stop its illegal construction activities, with its settlement expansion being among the main reasons behind the collapse of the last round of the so-called Middle East peace talks in 2014.

The occupied territories have been the scene of heightened tensions since August 2015, when Tel Aviv imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Almost 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in what is regarded as the third Palestinian Intifada since October 2015.

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