T. Belman. Netanyahu first said he would annex the settlements. And now he has added the Jordan Valley. Next it will include all of Area C. He is moving toward the Jordan Option. Thus his policy proposals are falling in line with the Deal of the Century which is slated to be tabled shortly after the election.
I just read another article that said Bibi announced he would apply sovereignty over “Judea and Samaria and other areas,” starting with the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea region.
Netanyahu said the steps would be taken in coordination with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that if he is re-elected, he will express Israeli sovereignty over all the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, starting with the Jordan Valley.
Netanyahu said the steps would be taken in coordination with the administration of US President Donald Trump. He revealed that Trump intends to announce his Middle East peace plan the day after the September 17 election.
“This is an historic opportunity that we may not have again,” Netanyahu said in his statement that he delivered at Ramat Gan’s Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel.
Pointing to a map of the Jordan Valley, he said Israel could carry out the plan without annexing a single Palestinian and while ensuring that Palestinians maintain complete freedom of movement.
He warned that if he did not win the election, Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid would not take such steps and would not be able to handle the Trump administration’s plan.
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz lauded Netanyahu for his commitment to annex the Jordan valley, if reelected.
“I am convinced that the US administration, always friendly towards Israel,” he said, “will support and is supporting the move.”ARTICLES1/5READ MORENorth Korea says willing to resume U.S. talks, launchesprojectiles
“The Israeli voter will be asked to pick between those who defend the security borders of the state of Israel,” he said, “and those who support giving over lands and uprooting hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes and lands.”
But both Gantz and Lapid have said in the past that they envision keeping the Jordan Valley forever.
Blue and White and the Democratic Union asked the head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Hanan Melcer, not to broadcast the speech. But he said he trusted media outlets to pull the plug on the broadcasts if Netanyahu veered into election propaganda.
The networks did indeed stop showing the speech soon after it began. .
Before Netanyahu’s address, the head of the Jordan Valley Council released a statement thanking the prime minister ‘for the historic” decision.
Right wing party Otzma Yehudit offered congratulations to Netanyahu for his Tuesday address and said they hope “the prime minister will make the right decision, to form a strong right-wing government.”
In response to Netanyahu’s address, the Yesha Council, which is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, said, “This is a very important time that the settlements have been expecting since their inception,” according to Walla.
Head of Efrat Regional Council and Yesha official Oded Ravivi lauded the speech by Netanyahu saying that “after 52 years of dancing around in circles and mostly repeating mistakes it’s good a decision was made leading to a better, clearer reality.”
The council welcomed “the historic position, which places the settlements as integral parts of the State of Israel.”
Blue and White Party reacted to Netanyahu’s statement on Tuesday, saying that “residents of the Jordan Valley are not actors in Netanyahu’s propaganda film. Blue and White stated that the Jordan Valley is part of the State of Israel forever. Netanyahu is the one who drafted a plan to waive the Jordan Valley in 2014.”
“We are pleased that Netanyahu recognized and adopted the Blue and White plan to recognize the Jordan Valley,” the party said, adding, “The relationship between the State of Israel and the US is based on common interests and values and is stronger than any prime minister. Netanyahu’s spin on Israeli citizens will end on September 17. ”
Blue and White co-leader Yair Lapid slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday saying “he doesn’t want to annex lands, he wants to annex votes from [Tkuma leader Bezalel] Smotrich.”
Calling it “an election trick” Lapid asked “Netanyahu served as prime minister for 13 years, who prevented him from annexing the Jordan Valley?”
Former Education Minister and Yamina party Knesset candidate Naftali Bennett’s responded to the statement saying, “Welcome to Netanyahu’s series of promises,” Bennett said, “but they are just words.” “I am calling on the prime minister to pass ‘The Jordan Valley [annexation] Law’ tomorrow, in three readings, instead of the cameras law,” he said.
“[Former Prime Minister Mencham] Begin did this. He didn’t promise. He just passed a law in one day, December 14, 1981. In three readings,” Bennett said.
Bennett noted Netanyahu’s history of empty promises, “before Netanyahu’s election, construction was promised in E1 Ma’ale Adumim, after the election that did not happen,” he pointed out.
“Before Netanyahu’s election, he promised the death penalty for terrorists, after the election that did not happen,” he continued.
“Before Netanyahu’s election, he promised to eliminate Hamas, after the election that did not happen,” he argued.
Joint List MK Ofer Kasif reacted by saying that “to escape from prison, Netanyahu will try to annex tens of thousands of Palestinians, while depriving them of rights in what will become official apartheid.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh responded, “Netanyahu is the chief destroyer of the peace process and any foolish move he makes will leave negative consequences on him locally and internationally.”
He continued, “Palestine is not part of Netanyahu’s election campaign, and if he believes that annexing settlement blocs will bring him more votes in the short term, then he and Israel will be the losers in the long term.”
@ Edgar G.:
No one is stopping security at the settlements and Arabs will have to pass through security to get in.
I meant to mention this yesterday when it was announced….but was involved in other items. Netanyahu’s announcement is all very well, but does he need to “annex”..”Extension of Sovereignty” over our own Land should be enough, and points to the fact that The Land Title of Ownership by the Jewish People, has already the inprimatur of the 51 International countries which decided this in 1920 at San Remo,, and the subsequent irrevocable undertakings by the 1922 British Mandate for Palestine and the 1924 Anglo-American Treaty, unanimously declared, PLUS the guaranteed assumption of all International League of Nations Decisions by the newly formed Unitet Nations, …etc
They all contain the Balfour Letter in full as an integral part of their documents, and the agreements have all been verified and declared as valid by a horde of famed Interntional Law.experts. So I’d like to have seen them mentioned somewhere in Netanyahu’s announcement.
I got off the track a bit. My lead-in sentence meant to refer to Netanyahu’s declaration that the “Palestinians” would have full freedom of movement”…THIS worries me until he clarifies it, and I hope some reporter has spotted it. Surely he meant, free movement only in Arab areas, and not in Jewish YESHA city and village areas, where they go mainly to detonate bombs and otherwise murder innocent civilians..
Full article at https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/netanyahus-earth-shattering-announcement/
@ Bear Klein:
But did he promise to keep his promise?
As long as trump says go go, but if he says no no that gives nutunyahoo an easy exit.
the u n has already said no no, but surely that would be in violation of the u n charter’
if nutunyahoo goes past go and collects $200 will the u n declare a sodomite state on J-S land at their agm this month?
I listened to his speech and here is what he said, if I am given a mandate by the voters I intend to apply Rabinoot (SOVEREIGNTY ) to all Yishuvim (Jewish Towns) and other unspecified land needed for security, plus the Jordan Valley from the Kinneret down to and to include the Northern Dead Sea Area.
This a campaign speech and promise that he would do this if a right wing government is elected. If such is elected he is considering this a mandate. He said this would not work with Gantz and Lapid as they want to remove 18% of the settlements.
Perhaps the 52 year old mistake is beginning to see resolution…