Israeli Defense Minister in DC to Meet with Senior Administration Officials

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman left Monday evening for his first official visit to Washington since the installation of President Donald Trump.

Lieberman will meet with senior administration officials during his visit, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Earlier Monday, Lieberman told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the government "received a direct message that imposing Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] would result in an immediate crisis with the United States."

Lieberman has long advocated separation and territorial swaps between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. He is against a "one-state" solution or annexing Judea and Samaria in part because he believes absorbing Palestinian Arabs into Israeli society would be far too costly.

"Under Israeli law, they will have to be given at least residency status, like the Palestinians in east Jerusalem. This means that from day one, Israel will have to pay them over 20 billion shekels [$5.4 billion] in social benefits like unemployment and health care," Lieberman told committee members.

Israeli ministers and Knesset members in favor of annexing Judea and Samaria, the nation's biblical heartland, said Lieberman was indulging in "scare-mongering," Arutz Sheva reported.

MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Yoav Kish issued a joint statement.

"You need to stop this scare-mongering campaign against sovereignty," the statement read. "One cannot be an 'occupier' in their own land, so what we're talking about isn't 'annexation' but extension of sovereignty in our land.

"Now the time has come for the next step: We will promote a law extending sovereignty over Ma'aleh Adumim, and it will receive majority support both in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and in the Knesset plenum," the statement concluded.

Deputy Foreign Ministry Tzipi Hotovely accused Lieberman of attempting to intimidate people, saying the new U.S. administration is still formulating its policies.

"Minister Lieberman is attempting to create a reality that does not exist yet in Washington," Hotovely said, according to Arutz Sheva. "The political dialogue with the Americans hasn't started yet. The current administration hasn't put together any strategic plan for the region yet. The American government is open to considering new policies and all of the options are still on the table."