The Trump administration wants to send the Palestinians a message that time is not working in their favor, the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Friday, citing unnamed US government sources.
The essence of the message, the sources said, is that if the Palestinians do not cooperate with the Trump administration, Israel would be given a free hand to build more settlements and perhaps even apply sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.
According to the nrg report, Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer has started preliminary talks with Jason Greenblatt — President Donald Trump’s special representative for international negotiations — about settlement construction. Large gaps remain between the Israeli and American positions on the issue, nrg said, and no agreements have been reached yet.