David Friedman
David FriedmanIsraeli branch of the Trump campaign

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced on Saturday that it is moving ahead with a hearing for the nomination of US bankruptcy attorney and staunch Israel-supporter David Friedman to the post of US Ambassador to Israel.

The hearing has been scheduled for this Thursday - a day after US President Trump is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington.

So far, only two diplomatic posts have been officially approved by the Senate Committee: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Friedman has been an outspoken supporter of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. “I hope people can take comfort in the fact that [Trump is] taking advice from me,” Friedman said last year in an interview with Arutz Sheva. “Because there’s obviously hundreds of people in New York who have thoughts about Israel – to the right, to the left, and the middle – and he chose someone who he knows has a deep love for Israel. For all of Israel, for the entire Land of Israel.”

“[Judea and Samaria] is land that Israel has held for almost 50 years. The population of Yehuda and Shomron [Judea and Samaria - ed.] is 400,000 people. You add in east Jerusalem you have almost a million people. These people aren’t going anywhere and Israel’s not going to make the same mistake that it made in connection with the evacuation of Gaza,” he added.

Friedman is also a proponent of moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and has expressed his desire to work out of Jerusalem in his function as US Ambassador - irrespective of where the US embassy ends up being located.