On Sunday, a ministerial committee of rightists within the Likud party and the governing coalition approved a contentious bill to retroactively legalize illegal settlement on privately owned Palestinian land. Prompted by the effort to salvage the Amona outpost, it may be a precursor of things to come.

Although the pro-settler camp was promoting the bill long before Mr. Trump’s victory, the decision was taken, unusually, over Mr. Netanyahu’s vehement objections and despite his exhortations for it to be postponed.

Tzipi Livni, a centrist former foreign minister and justice minister who now sits in the Parliamentary opposition, denounced the settlement bill, writing on Twitter that it constitutes “major damage to the rule of law at home, damage to Israel abroad, and primarily conveys a message that might makes right, when faced with a weak prime minister.”

Mr. Netanyahu warmly welcomed Mr. Trump’s victory, calling him “a true friend” of Israel. But Mr. Netanyahu has also since instructed his ministers and legislators to be discreet, saying the incoming administration should be allowed “to formulate — together with us — its policy vis-à-vis Israel and the region through accepted and quiet channels, and not via interviews and statements.”

Mr. Netanyahu endorsed the principle of a Palestinian state in 2009, under American pressure and with caveats. Since then, he has tried to balance between world opinion and his right-wing constituency by declaring support for a solution based on two states for two peoples without going out of his way to advance it.

Israeli analysts point out that the Trump campaign has spread contradictory messages. While many here assume that he will have more pressing priorities than the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr. Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that he would like to seal an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, calling it the “ultimate deal.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s critics on the right, however, assume a Trump administration will at least give Israel a freer hand in areas like settlement construction. They say Mr. Netanyahu will have to decide which side he is on.