Given his combined interests in antagonizing Muslims, staging provocative media stunts, and property development, I suppose it makes sense that Donald Trump is the first U.S. presidential candidate to have a campaign office on a West Bank settlement.
According to Haaretz, the opening event for the makeshift office in the house of a supporter in the Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron, considered illegal under international law, was held on Monday with several local officials in attendance. Two right-wing Knesset members had planned to attend but were advised at the last minute by their party leaders to cancel.
The Israeli chapter of Republicans Overseas, which opened the office, already has offices in three Israeli cities. Provocative as it is, there’s definitely an electoral logic to having an office specifically targeting Israelis living in the West Bank: U.S.-Israeli dual citizens account for about 25 percent of settler population, according to Republicans Overseas. (This is higher than most estimates, though the population is undoubtedly significant.) Local officials believe that they will overwhelmingly vote Republican, which seems like a safe assumption given the two parties’ stances on settlement construction.
Trump has suggested he’s unlikely to follow in the footsteps of the past few White House hopefuls in making a trip to Israel during his campaign, but he does have a following in the country. Despite his popularity among American neo-Nazis and the endorsement of anti-Semitic figures like David Duke, polls taken during the primary suggested that Trump was the most popular Republican candidate in Israel. A June poll suggested that most Israelis (42–35 percent) would vote for Hillary Clinton if they could, but Trump had a one point edge on the question of which one would be better for Israel.
Clinton has not-so-subtly suggested that she will be friendlier to the Israeli government than her former colleagues in the Obama administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, usually not shy about inserting himself into U.S. political debates, has been uncharacteristically quiet during this election, likely assuming that either outcome will be an improvement for him.
