Israeli Lawmakers, Settlers Praise Trump’s Nominee for Envoy

Supporters of two-state solution warn of bleak outlook for Israeli-U.S. relations

Jewish settlers and conservative Israeli lawmakers on Friday welcomed the nomination of pro-settlement lawyer David Friedman as the incoming Trump administration’s new envoy to Israel, an appointment likely to prove as controversial here as in the U.S.

.. Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Friedman has indicated the U.S. should abandon its decadeslong policy of establishing a Palestinian state and move America’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

.. A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbassaid, however, that, Mr. Friedman would be judged on his actions, not past statements.

“All what we want is that the new administration and president to act according to international law,” the official said. “We need to preserve the two state solution.”

.. Mr. Friedman, a founding partner of the New York-based law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, worked previously worked with President-elect Trump in connection with his investments in Atlantic City casinos. He has been outspoken in his criticism of the Obama administration and liberal U.S. Jewish organizations for their policies toward Israel.

.. In a column in May on the news website IsraelNationalNews.com, he likened members of the American pro-peace lobbying group J Street to “kapos,” Jews who were assigned to supervise others Jews in Nazi concentration camps in World War II.

.. 2010 through 2014, the nonprofit American Friends of Beit El Yeshiva Center, which operates under the umbrella of Beit El Institutions, raised nearly $10 million in gifts and contributions for the settlement, according to U.S. tax filings posted on Guidestar.org. The family foundation of the president-elect’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also has given money to the settlement.