Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced Oct. 11 that he will seek government approval to build 31 housing units for Jews in the Hezekiah Quarter of the West Bank town of Hebron.
Why now? One might have thought that the escalation in Gaza would be enough, without him escalating the situation in the West Bank as well. Why did Liberman decide now was the time to prove his loyalty to “strengthening West Bank Jewish settlement in deeds, not words?” One year ago, on Oct. 16, the Israeli planning authorities issued a general building permit for the project. Couldn’t he have waited two or three months for US President Donald Trump to present his promised "deal of the century" as a gesture to the supportive American president?