Netanyahu chooses diehard supporter of Israeli settlements as new US ambassador amid Trump return

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Yechiel Leiter as the next ambassador to the United States last Friday has raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic.

A staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and a vocal supporter of the war in Gaza, Leiter is poised to take over from current ambassador Michael Herzog when his term ends on January 20.

Described by Netanyahu as a “highly capable diplomat, an eloquent speaker” and someone who “possesses a deep understanding of American culture and politics”, the former government aide and right-wing writer has established himself as a prominent figure in conservative circles.

The announcement of his new role came on the heels of the US presidential election, just three days after Donald Trump’s victory.

For some, the move reflects Netanyahu’s expectation that a second Trump term will be more permissive of Israel when he takes office on January 20 – the same day Leiter will become Israel’s new US envoy.

A right-wing conservative

Leiter immigrated to Israel 40 years ago but was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and shares the same hometown as US President Joe Biden. Father of eight children, five of whom are serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), he lost his eldest son Moshe to fighting in northern Gaza last November.

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Though they may come from the same town in the US, Leiter has made it clear he is not aligned with Biden’s policy on the war in Gaza. During a eulogy Leiter gave at his son Moshe’s funeral in November last year, he addressed the US president directly.

“There are rumours that you are putting pressure on Israel to hold off,” he told listeners at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. “I respectfully ask of you, here on my son’s grave, to cease and desist.”

“This is a war of light against darkness, of truth against lies, of civility against murderous barbarism,” he continued. “Take it from one plain-speaking Scrantonian to another – we’re going to win this one, with you or without you.”

It will be Leiter’s first diplomatic job after decades spent at religious conservative Israeli and US research organisations, including the Shalem Institute and Herzl Institute. He has long been affiliated with think tanks like the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the conversative Kohelet Forum, the latter of which played a significant role in the controversial judicial overhaul last year and where Leiter worked as a senior fellow.  

Leiter kicked off his political career as an aide to late prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was a Knesset member at the time. He quickly climbed the ladder in Israeli politics and took on multiple senior government positions, first as deputy director-general of the education ministry and then as chief of staff to Netanyahu when he was finance minister.

His political activism is deeply rooted in right-wing Israeli politics. Leiter spent his youth participating in the Jewish Defense League, a far-right organisation founded in the US by extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane. After two of its members conspired to bomb a mosque in California in 2001, the FBI designated the group a terrorist organisation. The State Department revoked this status in 2022 due to inactivity.

An Israeli settler

Leiter has called for Israeli “sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank territories.

He has also advocated for the annexation of the West Bank by Israel – a move that would be illegal under international law.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, Leiter’s activism in the Jewish Defense League is what brought him to move to the Israeli settlement of Eli in the occupied West Bank, north of Ramallah. In his former years spent in the organisation, Leiter was part of a settler activist subgroup who eventually all moved into West Bank settlements. 

Read moreIsrael’s largest land seizure since Oslo Accords deals fresh blow to Palestinian statehood

Leiter also participated in the public campaign against the Oslo Accords in the 1990s and has continued to voice his criticism of the widely celebrated peace deal that he says was “made to be breached”.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Michael Omer-Man, the director of research on Israel-Palestine for Democracy for the Arab World Now, described Leiter as “somebody who is ideologically aligned with the most radical streams of Israeli settlement intellectual thought and ideological movement”.

His appointment as US ambassador was welcomed by Yisael Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organisation that represents councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Ganz called Leiter a “key partner in English-language advocacy for Judea and Samaria”, a biblical term used by Israel settler groups to refer to the West Bank. Leiter is also the founding chairman of One Israel Fund, an organisation that provides security and social services for Israeli settlements.

Palestinians and advocates of a two-state solution want the West Bank to belong to a future Palestinian state, an outcome that is currently looking less and less likely.

Settler violence has also exploded over the past year, prompting the US and EU to impose sanctions on people and entities they blame for the escalation.

During his first term, Trump reversed the longstanding US position that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were illegal under international law. Following his re-election, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who is in charge of settlements – ordered Israel to prepare to annex settlements in the West Bank.

A Trump supporter

“Netanyahu has never been subtle, and this appointment is no different,” Hadar Susskind, CEO of Americans for Peace Now, a non-profit dedicated to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, told Haaretz on November 8. “Sending a Kahanist settler to Washington is a clear sign that Netanyahu and his government are moving toward their goal of annexation and doing so openly.”

Trump was demonstrative in his loyalty to Israel during his first term, and his return has been a source of celebration for many Israelis. He recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and oversaw the restoration of diplomatic ties between Israel and the Arab countries of Bahrain and the UAE through the Abraham Accords.

Read moreNetanyahu says has spoken with Trump three times in past few days

Leiter is a vocal supporter of the Abraham Accords. In 2023, he published an article about warming relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, hinting that normalisation was on the horizon – but such hopes were dashed with the outbreak of war in Gaza. Saudi Arabia has since hardened its stance and doubled down on its insistence that any agreement with Israel must include tangible progress toward a two-state solution.

Leiter’s appointment could also shed light on who Trump might choose as his US counterpart. A key player in right-wing Jewish circles, Leiter is said to be close to figures like David Friedman, who served as US ambassador to Israel during the first Trump administration. While Friedman helped Trump develop a plan for a limited Palestinian state in 2020, he now advocates a single, expanded Israel – without full citizenship for Palestinians. He likened the arrangement to Puerto Rico in an interview in September.

With staunch supporters of Israeli settlements expected to take up posts in both countries in January, it seems unlikely that Israel will feel the need for compromise anytime soon.