Bayit Yehudi leader launches PR initiative for “Settlement Blocs First” plan in response to what he says is a failed peace process.
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to annex some 60 percent of the West Bank in response to the Palestinians’ stopping talks with Israel and turning to the UN.
All 350,000 of the Jews in Judea and Samaria live in Area C, some 60% of the area. Of the Palestinians in the West Bank, 97% live in Area A, which is under full Palestinian control, and Area B, which is under Palestinian civil control and Israeli military control.
We are entering a new era,” Bennett wrote Netanyahu. “We have been hitting our heads against the wall of negotiations over and over again for years and we kept getting surprised when the wall did not break. The time has come for new thinking.”
Bennett launched a public relations initiative Wednesday for his “Settlement Blocs First” plan, which calls for annexing blocs such as Ariel, Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim, Beit El-Ofra and communities that overlook Ben-Gurion Airport. He explained his plan on CNN Wednesday night and intends to push it to the international community.
A Hebrew video with subtitles in multiple languages that the Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs minister released explained why the plan could be practical. It says that the international community does not recognize Israel’s annexation of eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, so annexing part of the West Bank would just add another thing for the world to complain about.
The three-staged plan starts with annexing Area C and offering citizenship to its Palestinians.
It calls for giving the Palestinians upgraded autonomy in Areas A and B. The third stage is massive investment in Palestinian areas to improve their quality of life and improve their lives.
“We should be taking a bottom- up strategy rather than creating an artificial state in the heart of Israel,” a source close to Bennett said.
Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz blamed Bayit Yehudi Wednesday for the stalemate in diplomatic talks. Unlike his Hatnua colleague, MK Amram Mitzna, he did not call for leaving the coalition.
He said he supports staying in the government, because he believes his party leader, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, can still advance the diplomatic process.
Peretz told Army Radio that he did not see any other possible coalition being built in the current Knesset.
I agree with extending permanent Israeli sovereignty to all of Shomron and Yehuda, including all three areas defined by the Oslo Accords and its maps.
However, Israel should negotiate local autonomy agreements individually with the leaders of the urban Arab clans (hamulas) of the main Arab-populated cities of the Shomron and Yehuda. It would be a serious error to offer 1.66 million Arabs citizenship, including voting rights and social benefits, in Israel. The idea is to destabilize and get rid of the Fatah gang which designates itself as the “Palestine Authority”. This is best accomplished by dealing purposely, solely and directly with the hamulas. And this time, any and all foreign governments — including the government of the USA and all the European Union states — should be excluded from any negotiations regarding terms of Israel’s exercize of its own sovereignty. In any case, when dealing with those local Arab clan chiefs, there is no need to argue with them over recognition of Israel at the world’s Jewish state or any other such consideration. All the Jewish state and Jewish nation should care about is control over the land and the need to expand Jewish settlement around the whole of Israel’s ancient Jewish homelands.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Bennett should be supported as his is the only plan that has a chance to incorporate all Jewish Towns in Judah and Samaria under Israeli law. So building and would be subject to the same laws as elsewhere in Israel.
I’m in favor of extending Israeli sovereignty, law and jurisdiction to ALL of Judea and Samaria.
Its ALL Jewish land! The Arabs have had four bites at the statehood apple and they have turned it all down. Israel owes them nothing.
By encouraging Jews to move, live and work in Judea and Samaria, the Arab demographic threat can be significantly diminished.
Israel needs to take a new path to ensure its future.