US President-elect Donald Trump seems to have some ominous surprises up his sleeve for the Palestinians, in particular, and the Arab world, in general. He asked his long-time adviser and friend David Friedman, a hardline pro-Israel lawyer, to be the US ambassador to Israel.

Friedman is a vocal opponent of the “two-state” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a strong supporter of an undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

He will work hard to deliver on Trump’s promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, having already said that he was looking forward to taking up his post at the US embassy “in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”.

Such a move, if indeed it happens, will certainly draw the anger of the Arab countries and the rest of the Muslim world, besides going against customary US policy of keeping the embassy in Tel Aviv.

Moreover, unfortunately, the “surprises” do not end here.

Friedman is an unwavering supporter of Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank; he is the president of the American Friends of Bet El Institution, which funds Jewish settlements, and that will probably translate into more Jewish colonists on Palestinian soil.

Prominent Israeli settler leader, and Friedman’s friend, Yossi Dagan, welcomed the news and said Friedman was “a true friend and partner of the state of Israel and the settlements”.

Impeccable credentials, for the settlers, no doubt, utterly tainted for the Palestinians

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