Jerusalem (CNN) The Trump administration's reversal of decades of US foreign policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank has been in the works for a year, says a US official, but the timing couldn't have been better for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has banked on his relationship with the US President to carry him to electoral victory in the past. But after showering Netanyahu with political gifts ahead of Israel's April elections, Trump barely sent more than a supportive tweet his way leading up to the September re-do. The US President, it seemed, was ready to move on, as Netanyahu's political fortunes ebbed and he failed to put together a government for the second consecutive time. For the first time in a decade, someone else had the chance to lead the country.

That opportunity fell to Netanyahu's rival, former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. The leader of the Blue and White party has until Wednesday at midnight to put together a government. But if he fails -- and his chances of success are slim at best -- Israel enters a sort of political free-for-all where any one of the 120 members of Knesset could become Prime Minister if they have enough support. That includes Netanyahu, who will put himself forward once again as the best candidate for Prime Minister.

And now Netanyahu has new bragging rights.

On Monday afternoon, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a decisive break with international consensus when he declared that the US now rejected a 1978 State Department legal opinion that deemed Israeli settlements in the West Bank "inconsistent with international law."

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