WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Yechiel Leiter, a long-time advocate for the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the occupying regime’s ambassador to the United States.
Leiter, a close associate of Netanyahu, previously served as his chief of staff when Netanyahu was finance minister. He was also an aide to the late prime minister Ariel Sharon when he was a member of the Knesset, the Zionist regime’s parliament.
Leiter, who will replace Michael Herzog as ambassador, was born in the U.S. and moved to the occupied territories four decades later. He resides in the Eli settlement, north of Ramallah, and founded the U.S.-based charity One Israel Fund, which provides equipment and financial assistance to illegal settlements.
Leiter has previously called for the annexation of the West Bank in an article published in 2020, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. He has consistently supported settlements over the years, particularly in Al-Khalil.
Haaretz reported that in his youth, Leiter was a member of the Jewish Defense League, which was founded in the U.S. by the far-right rabbi Meir Kahane. The group was later designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., although the designation was lifted in 2022 due to inactivity.
Leiter’s son was killed last year in Gaza while serving with the regime’s military.
Leiter’s appointment came just three days after Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. During his first term, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy that considered settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law.
Under Trump, Israel aggressively expanded its settlement building, pushing deeper into the West Bank and constructing thousands of settler homes on Palestinian land. 
Trump also recognized the regime’s control over the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory that the regime occupied in 1981 in a move the international community has never recognized.
Leiter’s appointment suggests that Netanyahu plans to advance policies in line with the settler movement’s agenda, which includes the annexation of the West Bank.