Netanyahu pledges to annex Jewish Hebron and Kiryat Arba after the elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the first time on Monday morning that if re-elected on Tuesday, he would annex Kiryat Arba and the Jewish areas of Hebron.

Speaking to Efi Triger on Army Radio’s “Good Morning Israel” program, Netanyahu went farther than he did just 11 days ago when he visited Hebron and delivered a historic speech just outside of the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Expectations had been high that he would use the platform to declare his intention to apply Israeli sovereignty to the mostly Palestinian city, or at the very least to the 4% of the city of that includes the Tomb  of the Patriarchs and the section where the Jewish community lives.

No such pledge was forthcoming.

On Monday morning, with one day left to go until the election, Triger asked him, “Kiryat Arba and the Jewish community in Hebron will be annexed?”

Netanyahu responded: “Of course. They will be part of Israel. But I need a mandate to execute this plan.”

He told Army Radio that he had spoken of his sovereignty plan for West Bank settlements with US President Donald Trump..

“I said this to Trump, I plan to apply sovereignty on all of the settlements, including in the blocs, and the territory [around it] and all the settlements and the sites that have importance from a security or Israeli heritage perspective,” Netanyahu said.

“I said that no one will be uprooted, I won’t recognize the [Palestinian] right of return and I said that Jerusalem must remain united. All these things were said,” the Prime Minister said.

Netanyahu repeated for Triger something he has said for weeks, that Trump plans to release his peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very soon after the elections.

“We are determining Israel’s final borders, so it has strategic depth and heights,” Netanyahu said.

Last week, Netanyahu unveiled a plan to annex 31 West Bank settlements, including 22 in the Jordan Valley, five in the Megilot region of the Dead Sea and four in the Binyamin region of the West Bank. He said he would do so unilaterally as soon as a new government was formed and asked those who support such a plan to vote for him.

At that same time, he has said he would apply sovereignty to all the West Bank settlements, but he would do so, as much as possible in conjunction with Trump’s peace plan.

On Sunday, Netanyahu held a cabinet in the Jordan Valley in which he spoke of his sovereignty plan for the area. The cabinet in that meeting gave its initial approval to the creation of a new Jordan Valley settlement called Mevo’ot Yericho.

Netanyahu also spoke of his overall sovereignty plans for the West Bank settlements but did not clarify exact details of the plan, but has dropped information in various media interviews he has done over the last days, including with Army Radio on Monday morning and with Arutz 7 on Thursday when he promised to apply sovereignty to the E1 area of Ma’aleh Adumim.

US pressure has prevented Israel from building in that area of Ma’aleh Adumim for 25 years.

The Palestinians who hold that all that area from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, including the Jordan Valley is an essential part of their future state. But they have been successful, particularly in persuading the US that E1 is an existential territory for that state.

Netanyahu has in the past promised to build there, but has never done so. Now, in the final days to the elections, he has added sovereignty over E1, along with the Jewish neighbourhood of Hebron, onto the wish list he has promised right-wing voters.