Ya’alon: After Obama, a West Bank construction boom

Israeli 'defense' minister Moshe Ya’alon has told Israeli students on Tuesday that although the US has been holding Israel back in some aspects of settlement construction, the Jewish population in the West Bank has been growing apace, and a future Washington administration could enable even more expansion

"I hope that it is temporary, because at the moment there is a certain government in the US, the US is laying down the rules” regarding construction in the West Bank, Ya’alon said, according to Arutz Sheva.

Asked in a gathering of students why Israel had scaled back its settlement construction, Ya’alon assured them that it was, in fact, still going ahead, and that the West Bank sported the most rapid population growth in Israel.

"I know the numbers. In the last year the settlements in the West Bank grew by 20,000 people; there is no increase like that anywhere else" in Israel, he said.

The only impact that the US government has had was in halting the publication of new tenders, Ya’alon continued, noting that plans that have already been approved are still going ahead.