Samaria Regional Council launches campaign: No to ‘half sovereignty’

T. Belman.  I had an extended conversation with their spokesperson yesterday on just this issue. I argued that

  • the PA will never come to the table so there is nothing to worry about
  • even if negotiations get started, Israel can be as rejectionist, for 4 years, as the PA was, for 25 years following Oslo
  • Israel is just being asked to negotiate in good faith.  That’s not synonomous with accepting a Palestinian statelet
  • best to pocket the 30% now and then focus on the rest.
  • Trump has earned the right to be trusted and we should give Trump some wiggle room as he is trying to keep the Gulf states on board

He argued that

  • The two state solution was dead and soon to be buried so why revive it
  • This statelet involves our biblical heartland, we shouldn’t be asked to put it on the table
  • Pompeo opened the door for us by saying the US thinks that the settlements are not illegal.  That was enough.
  • Israel should not be taken for granted. It argues about everything.
  • Trump’s base does not support his Plan

Shomron Regional Council embarks on aggressive campaign for Israeli sovereignty, warns against what it calls “half sovereignty.”

By Ben Ariel, INN

The Shomron Regional Council is embarking on an aggressive campaign for Israeli sovereignty this July, warning it of what it calls “half sovereignty.”

The campaign operates using two arms, one of which is in Israel with a clear demand not to accept “poisoned candy” within the sovereignty agreement, meaning a de facto approval in a government decision to establish a Palestinian state, and to leave Jewish communities as enclaves in the territory.


A second arm of the campaign will take place within what is defined as US President Donald Trump’s “base”, the Evangelical public which is currently pleased with the “Deal of the Century” that will allow for sovereignty over biblical territories of the Jewish people, but is unaware of the fact that the plan is dangerous to the vision which they are eyeing: the return of the Jewish people to all parts of the Promised Land.

“We expect the government to apply sovereignty, that is the right thing to do and would be a correction of an historic injustice. We should encourage the Prime Minister to do so,” said Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, adding, “And equally, we will not agree to receive poisoned candies in exchange for that dream.”

He continued, “A terrorist state in the heart of the country is a real danger that a Prime minister in Israel, certainly a Prime Minister from the national camp, should not accept as lip service. This is also true of enclaves. We will not abandon, in return for sovereignty, entire communities and tens of thousands of people.”

“The Prime Minister can and should apply sovereignty in a way that preserves the Israeli interest,” Dagan stated. “[Menachem] Begin applied sovereignty over the Golan Heights without US approval, [Levi] Eshkol applied sovereignty over Jerusalem without US approval. Netanyahu is a great leader, and he can and should apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, under the conditions of the State of Israel, with or without the consent of the Americans. He can certainly do it just as Menachem Begin and Levi Eshkol applied sovereignty over the Golan Heights and liberated Jerusalem, without the Americans’ consent and contrary to their opinion. Certainly now that Trump is six months before an election and will not pick a fight with the State of Israel.”

May 27, 2020 | 45 Comments »

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  1. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Interesting. You know, the US government knew exactly what was happening to the European Jews because those Jews who were American citizens weren’t deported to the extermination camps, and those from the Warsaw ghetto (who had American citizenship) were allowed eventually to leave for the US (they had to stay in a displaced persons camp in another country for a year, I think).

  2. @ Reader:400 rabbis. interesting though undoubtedly coincidental symbolism there. I mean they wouldn’t have turned anyone away just to have that number would they?

    “So it was that on October 6, 1943, more than 400 Orthodox rabbis, accompanied by marshals from the Jewish War Veterans of America, marched solemnly from Union Station to their first stop, the Capitol. Vice President Henry A. Wallace and a large bipartisan delegation of Congressional leaders received them. While passersby gawked and newsmen snapped photos, the rabbis recited the Kaddish; sang the traditional Jewish prayer for the nation’s leaders to the tune of the “Star Spangled Banner”; and solemnly read aloud, in English and Hebrew, their petition calling for the creation of a special Federal agency to rescue European Jewry and expand the limited quota on Jewish refugee immigration to the United States. Time Magazine commented that, on receiving the petition, Vice President Wallace “squirmed through a diplomatically minimal answer.” The rabbis then marched from the Capitol to the White House.

    On the advice of his aides, FDR, who was scheduled to attend a military ceremony, intentionally avoided the rabbis by leaving the White. House through a rear exit while they marched silently in front. When Roosevelt’s decision not to encounter the rabbis became known to the press, reporters interpreted Roosevelt’s actions as a snub, adding a dramatic flair that transformed the protest rally into a full-fledged clash between the rabbis and the administration.”

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/when-the-rabbis-marched-on-washington

  4. @ Edgar G.:
    “get it by a defensive war” I doubt that Israel will be able to win such a war unless ALL of Israel’s Arab citizens moved out to the new “Palestinian” state AND Israel was NOT cut in half by a road from the West Bank to Gaza, and even then it will be iffy, plus now there is Hizballah in Lebanon with all those rockets.
    Also, how do we know that the UN or some foreign countries won’t station troops there “to keep peace” once the new state is created?
    For Israel, to win this kind of war would require a miracle akin to parting the Red Sea.

  5. NO PAL STATE WILL BE CREATED BY TRUMP PLAN.
    ISRAEL ONLY VOTING ON SOVEREIGNTY IN JULY.

    Jerusalem Post Arab Israeli Conflict
    Netanyahu: Israeli cabinet won’t vote on Palestinian statehood
    The Palestinians “need to acknowledge that we control security in all areas” of the West Bank, Netanyahu said.

    Israel’s government won’t vote on the issue of Palestinian statehood or on the entirety of the US Donald Trump’s peace plan, Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu told the Hebrew daily Makor Rishon in an interview published Friday.
    He clarified for the paper, that he planned to solely bring the topic of sovereignty to the cabinet and the Knesset for a vote, as dictated under the terms of his coalition agreement with the Blue and White party led by Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz.

    The paper asked Netanyahu, who has plans to bring the issue of sovereignty to a vote as early as July, “would the government decision on sovereignty include the topic of Palestinian statehood?”

    Netanyahu answered: “That subject is separate. A government decision on the matter is not expected.”

    The paper continued to press Netanyahu about the portion of the Trump plan that called for a demilitarized Palestinian state on 70% of the West Bank.
    “There won’t be a government decision that would. Recognize Palestinian statehood?,” the paper asked.

    Netanyahu responded. “There won’t be a government decision with regard to the details of the plan or to the adoption of the plan. Like I said in Washington, I am willing to engage in negotiations [with the Palestinians] on the basis of the Trump plan.”

    A number of settler leaders have told The Jerusalem Post that the message they have received worrisome message from the Prime Minister’s Office and officials connected to the joint Israeli-US mapping process. The settler leaders told The Post that the mapping process was closed and no changes could be made. They blamed the US for taking a hardline position on the matter.

    Knesset speaker Yariv Levin, who is on the joint Isaeli-Palestinian mapping committee, said that the US has not offered any position on the matter.
    Netanyahu clarified to Makor Rishon that the mapping process was not complete and that changes could be made to the document.

    When asked by the paper if the map was closed, Netanyahu responded, “not yet, we are sill working on it.” He insisted that the territory upon which sovereignty would be applied was 30% of the West Bank, which is the equivalent of 50% of Area C.

    Netanyahu said that for four years, neither Israelis or Palestinians would be allowed to build in the 50% of Area C that was outside of Israeli sovereignty. He reference in this the four year period in which, under the Trump plan, there is a process for the creation of a Palestinian state.
    There are no Israeli settlements in the area of that freeze.

  6. Trump DEFINES it as a STATE-He always calls the local Arabs “Palestinians”-Netanyahu also always calls the local infiltrator/illegal immigrant Arabs “Palestinians” The power of the BIG lie repeated constantly- And all our major right wing writers also call them “Palestinians”-

    Netanyahu says it’s far better than we have today—YET we actually control ALL the mentioned areas anyway and have since 1967 (our HUGE missed opportunity)

    Once this “Palestinian” State s set up-with it’s appurtenances and boundaries either before or after further negotiations which eventually will arrive; It is permanentt and we can then only get it by a defensive war-

  7. “[Americans] allowed us” Excuse me? Netanyahu implies that Israel is not a sovereign country but a colony of the US – what is allowed today may be disallowed tomorrow.
    His arguments are almost certainly full of deceit.
    Otherwise, why doesn’t he demand that the settler leaders be represented in the mapping committee and during the plan’s discussions?

  8. Rejecting settler fears, PM says annexation plan won’t mention Palestinian state
    Netanyahu tells newspaper any settlement freeze will also apply to Palestinians in Area C, adds he’s ‘convinced’ Jordan won’t alter peace treaty

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed fears increasingly expressed by settlers leaders regarding the US peace plan’s vision for the West Bank, saying in an interview published Thursday that the mapping process is ongoing and that they were criticizing elements of the plan that still haven’t been determined and published.

    “People are talking about the plan without knowing it,” Netanyahu said. “What this plan says is that Israel and its security forces will militarily control all the territory west of the Jordan River. I stress: all the territory, with no exception. Tell me, when has there ever been such an American approach? They allowed us, at most, to conduct urgent pursuits of terrorists. Now there’s a profound paradigm shift.”

    Full article at https://www.timesofisrael.com/rejecting-settler-fears-pm-says-annexation-plan-wont-mention-palestinian-state/

  9. The map is still being worked on by Israeli officials and US officials in the map committee. As Caroline Glick says that Trump Plan is not perfect but having ~30% sovereignty (all the settlements, Jordan Valley/North Dead Sea Area) is certainly better than were we are at today.

    Israel does NOT MOVE ONE INCH NOW and is not required to negotiate from 1967 lines as per the Obama Days.

    Yes we do not know what the future holds but the 30% sovereignty now is way better than zero which what the alternative people here seem to be advocating. Do I also want the rest of Area C under Israeli Law (yes). Also more if Arabs move elsewhere from Area B or Area A. As Bennett says maximum land and minimum Arabs.

  11. @ Reader:
    And here is another consideration:

    “Israel’s enemies care little as to how we define the settlements. From their perspective, Jaffa and Haifa also belong to them,” said Rabbi Abraham Schreiber, rabbi of the Kfar Darom Congregation in the Negev. “But there is one thing that they do care deeply about – that the Israeli government declares certain territories to no longer part be of Greater Israel. This declaration then becomes the Palestinians’ starting point for future negotiations. In their eyes, this is proof that Israel has already surrendered and agreed to a Palestinian state on seventy percent of Judea and Samaria, and that Israeli communities will have to live within it in hopeless enclaves. Why not continue their terrorist activities to attain the rest of their goals?”

    in Leading Israeli rabbis:
    ‘Sovereignty has become the new excuse for tearing apart the Holy Land’
    Group of over 400 leading Israeli rabbis embarks on campaign to inform the public of shortcomings and dangers of the ‘Deal of the Century.’

    Arutz Sheva Staff , 28/05/20 10:45
    Share
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/281009?fbclid=IwAR1Eh-4aD4usido0qyWxsiuV8mAkkO8z73mZix7IbHtrVyftHu1twWYKWKo

  14. @ Ted Belman:
    They are ALREADY forcing on Israel the 30% AS ITS FINAL BORDERS – there WON’T be any negotiations with the Arabs.
    EXPULSION of the Jews – YES, negotiations – NO.
    THE WHOLE IDEA is to chop off another large chunk of Israel’s land and leave the rest of it indefensible and subject to continual terrorist attacks within and without.
    What the “Palestinians” will or will not do with or on their 70% is completely irrelevant and The Plan’s creators don’t care about it one bit.

  15. Sebastien Zorn Said:

    His successor, Democrat or Republcan, may well decide that the only part of the Trump plan he chooses to hear is that Israel recognizes a Palestinian State on 70 percent of Area C.

    Not so. Israel’s sole copmmitment is to negotiate in good faith for 4 years during which time she must freeze construction. When the Arabs build in Area C, they are in violation of Oslo and Israel can stop them.

    If there is no agreement in four years, Israel can do what it wants and its obligation to negotiate is over. Thus the arabs must accept all of Israel’s terms within the four years and must do all the things demanded of them by the Plan. Promises won’t cut it. And it all must be completed in 4 years. The chances of that are nil.

  16. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    “Why do you have so much faith in the letter of the law?”
    Especially considering that The Plan is NOT LAW by any means and has never been meant to be the law, it’s just a suggestion (or, rather, a poisoned bait for Israel) which is already being changed by the US to favor the Arabs (and they know this but keep playing hard to get, at least publicly, while Israel is being put in the position of a beggar).

  17. @ Bear Klein:
    “Some Israelis?” Can a majority of settlers be dismissed as “some Israelis?” Why do you have so much faith in the letter of the law? I remember when Oslo’s defenders promised that if Arafat reneged, it could all be reversed. Now, it’s hard to even find a reference to any of those misguided assurances. Glick, of all people, should know better.

  18. @ Bear Klein:

    How official did they make it?? Did they sign and deliver permanent documents to that effect.. How can anyone believe anything beneficial to Israel that an Arab says……..??

    Wishful thinking and “The Yellow Brick Road syndrome seem plentiful round here !!

  19. @ Bear Klein:

    They can wait until the last minute and then say they are now ready to negotiate You keep repeating the same old things that we know and have assimilated up to the tops of our heads.

    I’m surprised that you-of all people- would believe the “words” of ANY Arab to be true and permanent-except when they say “Murder the Jews”……

  20. @ Bear Klein:

    But what about today’s report that the US is now demanding that the 30% should be the final boundary ?? She wrote her article before that became publlc..

  22. @ Bear Klein:

    Why 4 years?? Is there any hidden significance in this, like perhaps Trump will still be Pres for 6 months…..??

    Why not 2 years- or 1 year ? Why not 6 months for Abbas to “unreject” the Plan.which has now been out there for many months already..??

  23. Caroline Glick explains in a video (podcast with Avi Abelow) why it makes complete good sense to apply sovereignty now to the “settlements” and Jordan Valley and Israel does not forgo rights to other parts. She explains why the nonsense some of the YESHA Council objections are bogus and misplaced.

    Israel would be better off and loses nothing!

    https://www.facebook.com/carolineglick/videos/1321089581430389/

  24. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    The Plan allows for building in every existing town we are building in now and more locations in the Jordan Valley where we do not currently build. It puts every Jew living in Judea/Samaria under Israeli law making building in the currently settlements normalized like in Tel Aviv or Haifa. Why would you wait on that. would you wait on declaring the Jordan Valley Sovereign Israel.

    Israel does not have to agree to a Pal-State on 70% of Judea/Samaria but only be willing to negotiate with the Palestinians. The Palestinians have rejected the plan.

    I find it sad that some Israelis are making this very complicated. I have had this debate with some of my friends. My right wing friends are split on this issue.

    Caroline Glick is very much in favor of implementing sovereignty now. She thinks like I do that the Israelis on the right (YESHA Council) are blundering and acting very hysterical.

    Back with Avi Abelow to discuss applying Israeli law to areas in Judea & Samaria.

    See her podcast with ABi Avelow
    https://www.facebook.com/carolineglick/videos/1321089581430389/

  25. Even if re-elected, Trump will be a lame duck president in four years. His successor, Democrat or Republcan, may well decide that the only part of the Trump plan he chooses to hear is that Israel recognizes a Palestinian State on 70 percent of Area C. Maybe, it’s better just to keep things the way they are. What’s the rush? Time is on Israel’s side. The most important thing is to change the facts on the ground. Stop the Arabs from building and settling and facilitate close Jewish settlement of the entire land by degrees. The present plan requires a Jewish building freeze for four years, moreover, but will not enforce an Arab freeze, obviously, and it leaves 20 thousand Jews in danger as well as cutting off existing highway routes to Jews. Civil law can be established without conceding anything. Yamina was shut out of this government and Ganz and a spineless Netanyahu have all the key ministries. Settler leaders were shut out of the mapping process. I don’t think a nominal acknowldegement of Palestinian statehood under certain conditions, even a toothless statehood, will be nothing. I recall the Netanyahu made a speech once opposing it because he said that statehood can’t be demilitarized by definition. States have the right to control their borders and arm. So, I say, no. With Yamina.

  27. @ Bear Klein:
    What did the Oslo Accords say would happen if the PLO violated its terms? Did UN Resolution say Israel had to relinquish all territories liberated during the war? How did the EU, the UN, and previous US and Israeli administrations interpret it despite its wording.

  28. Seems like people forget that the Pals have rejected the TRUMP plan in NO Uncertain TERMS. There is NO ONE to negotiate with! So let us complicate applying sovereignty and make up fantastical hypotheticals that have zero chance of occurring.

    There will BE NO PLO STATE based on the TRUMP PLAN!.

  29. 70% of Judea and Samaria is NOT A “STATELET”. Rather, an unviable statelet encircled by a new Arab state and with almost 2 million Arab citizens of its own is what Israel might turn into once this “plan” is implemented.
    It is obvious that the US administration and some Israeli TRAITORS (I am not afraid to use this word) are in the process of creating a “Palestinian” state on 70% of Israel’s Biblical Land and in all of East Jerusalem and assuring a future expulsion of tens of thousands of settlers and over 200,000 of the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem to make room for the contiguous Arab state with a road cutting through Israel to connect this state to Gaza (another part of this Arab state).
    No one is going to notice or care whether the “Palestinians” are fulfilling any of the “plan’s” conditions.
    And this is after the British already chopped off 78% of the Mandate for the Jewish National Home to create Transjordan ruled by a sheikh of their choice from the Arabian Peninsula, and after they did everything possible to ruin the rest of this Jewish National Home and to destroy the rest of the Jews during and after WWII!

  30. @ Sebastien Zorn:

    Three things stand out for me-

    1) The Knesset Mapping Committee refuses to meet with the YESHA Committee-
    2) Regardless of “percentages”, the Plan definitely embodies a “Palestinian” State (unacceptable)

    3) This Hebron guy Damri seems willing, and hopeful that we will get up to 38%, even 32%, and accepts giving up the west bank of The Dead Sea- This sounds stupid to me; I don’t understand this, just scanned it over so maybe I’m reading it wrongly-

    So, the whole Plan which at first glance seemed like….”AT LAST”….becomes more and more unattractive………….(the term “a rush to judgement” comes to mind).

    Years ago even I had a “Plan”. I was discussing it then with The Women in Green, and some time after that, with big advance hullabaloo, a “SOVEREIGNTY” Convocation, was held, involving many “machers” from around the country- A Magazine was actually issued for 2-3- months, detailing progress, ideas etc –It then faded away, and my emails asking what happened to it were not answered- I had predicted that it was a “typical Yiddishe Business”- Big Fuss and loud talk at first, and then nobody would ever hear anything more about it-

    What I wanted was, that without any fanfare, the Jewish YESHA population, which was then only a little fewer than when Israel declared a State in 1948, should prepare a “Shadow Government” for which it had enough accomplished people to credibly do, “threaten” to declare Independence, and immediately approach Israel to make tight economic, defence, International representations etc, agreements,just like any normal.state (of course not all of the pop there was nationalist- but passed it over)

    They had the talent for ministries, the manpower for a “reserves” defence force etc. and so forth..(might have caused the Arabs to move out?)

    “Shadow” meant shadow, to show Israel that YESHA was prepared to act alone- as a very last resort against an infiltration take-over by the Arabs which was on the go then.

    I’m expressing it poorly and it likely sounds mashugga to most, but that\s they way I felt-and feel. (I maybe have a sort of Lost Cause” Southern Confederacy type of nostalgic gene)

  32. Anyone who is seriously interested in the Trump who has not yet read it, I have attached a link here to it. The Palestinians if they turn into Finns or Canadians would agree to the following plan in a heart beat. Since they are not going to it they will not in four years or fourteen years agree to the plans requirements for them to have a state. Israel by the way can ask for different borders as the map is conceptual. Israel maintains permanent security for the entirety of Judea/Samaria including the airspace.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Peace-to-Prosperity-0120.pdf

  33. @ Edgar G.:
    Have you read the plan? You must do that to understand what is going on.

    That plan has many requirements from the Palestinian before they get a recognized demilitarized, “statelet”.

    They must demilitarize for one small item, agree to a Jewish Jerusalem, waive right of return, agree to Israeli control security wise of all Judea/Samaria, have democratic elections, agree that the deal is final, agree to a Jewish State of Israel, complete negotiations and agree to a demilitarized state.

  34. @ Bear Klein:

    I haven’t seen plainly written down, that if the PA have not acted or completed the Plan demands by 4 years, that Israel is free to apply Sovereignty over all of YESHA-

    My feeling is,, that after 3 years and 11 months, the Mamzerim will begin some sort of co-operation towards talking with Israel, and ask for, and be given an extra 2-3-4 years They’ve payed that game before—

  35. @ Edgar G.:
    Indeed. I am becoming increasingly uneasy. Here are some other arguments against:

    (Courtesy)
    Settler leaders have been meeting with right-wing lawmakers over the past week and presenting them with what they claim is a map of the Palestinian state envisioned by the Trump plan, which would encircle 15 Israeli communities in a manner they say is unacceptable.

    The Yesha umbrella council of West Bank mayors passed a resolution earlier this month declaring that it would not accept the Trump plan’s green-lighting of Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank if it meant agreeing to the other key part of the proposal — the establishment of a Palestinian state.

    In the weeks since, Yesha officials, including chairman David Elhayani, director Yigal Dilmoni and various West Bank mayors, have been sitting down with lawmakers from the Likud, Jewish Home and Yamina parties in an effort to convince them to oppose the Trump plan, for which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced his support.

    Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFREE SIGN UP
    To their meetings with right-wing lawmakers in the Knesset, the Yesha officials have been coming equipped with a blown-up map showing what they claim is the Palestinian state envisioned by the Trump plan in red. The map highlights the 15 settlements that would become isolated enclaves encircled by the Palestinian state and also shows that many of the key highways running into and through the West Bank, such as routes 5 and 60, would no longer be accessible to Israeli drivers.

    Elhayani, however, admitted to The Times of Israel that the map is based on the conceptual version that was presented by US President Donald Trump at the plan’s unveiling in January. The administration has warned both sides against taking that map as final, noting that a joint US-Israeli mapping committee has been tasked with outlining the exact contours of the areas Israel would be allowed to annex and those set aside for a future Palestinian state.

    Nonetheless, Elhayani said, the mapping committee members have refused to meet with settler leaders to take their concerns into account and thus, he claimed, the map the US said was only conceptual will end up being the final version implemented.

    The mapping committee is made up of Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud), National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, Prime Minister’s Office director Ronen Peretz, and Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer on the Israeli side; and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, his adviser Aryeh Lightstone and the National Security Council’s Israel and Palestinian affairs director Scott Leith from the US side.

    Har Hebron Regional Council chairman Yochai Damri, who accompanied Elhayani during several of the Knesset meetings, said that when Yesha officials approached Israeli members of the mapping committee earlier this month, they were told that the mapping was still in its early stages, but that “there was no chance” the American side would take into account their alteration requests.

    Vision for Peace Conceptual Map published by the Trump Administration on January 28, 2020.
    Damri said that the conceptual map allows for Israeli sovereignty over 32 percent of the West Bank. Yesha was hoping to convince the committee to expand the figure to 38.5% in order to prevent the formation of isolated Israeli enclaves encircled by the future Palestinian state.

    Damri said that the settler leaders would perhaps be willing to accept the 32% figure if the borders were redrawn to connect the enclaves to the rest of Israel. He added that he was prepared to give up sovereignty over a number of areas that the plan grants to Israel such as the West Bank coasts of the Dead Sea.

    “This doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. It’s possible to make this a win-win,” Damri asserted. “But the Israeli side of the mapping committee shut us out.”

    The Times of Israel reached out to several members of the mapping committee for comment, but did not receive responses. The seven-member body has not spoken on the record regarding its efforts since being formed, beyond vague closed-door statements stating that progress is being made.

    Har Hebron Regional Council chairman Yochai Damri. (Courtesy)
    Damri, a resident of Otniel, which would be one of the plan’s 15 settlements-turned-enclaves, took particular issue with the plan’s “neglect” of such towns, which are home to roughly 5% of the 450,000 settlers in the West Bank.

    “These are communities that underwent gruesome terror attacks, and now you’re telling them that they can’t develop and basically passing a decision that will lead to another disengagement,” he said, referring to the effects that will be felt by the enclave communities, which will be barred from expanding for a four-year period during which negotiations toward a final resolution with the Palestinians would take place.

    He said he would be willing to support a building freeze in the areas surrounding Israeli settlements that are earmarked for a Palestinian state if the latter side holds to the freeze as well. If that is not to be the case, then the Israeli side could not accept such a requirement, he said.

    Damri also dismissed the argument that those 15 communities and others would still be allowed to build upward, saying that’s not a realistic solution for settlements in his regional council. “The building plans don’t allow for such construction. We would have to completely change them — a process that takes three or four years.”

    “The Har Hebron Regional Council sits on a million dunams. The only elevator in this entire area is located in my office,” he said.

    US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (4th from right) tours the Efrat settlement with settler leaders on February 20, 2020. (Courtesy)
    Damri is a member of what appears to be a majority of the 24 settlement mayors who oppose the Trump plan and voted in favor of the Yesha Council resolution rejecting it earlier this month. Alongside that group, another camp has formed in recent months made up largely of mayors of towns closer to the Green Line, who insist that the Trump plan represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the settlement movement.

    That latter group, which includes Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi, Ariel Mayor Eli Shaviro and at least six other council chairmen, has argued that while accepting the plan’s envisioning of a Palestinian state is a hard pill to swallow, the risk is mitigated because the Palestinian Authority is unlikely to accept the long list of conditions required in order to even enter negotiations for statehood.

    The more moderate camp insists that Israel can ill afford to pass up an American green light for annexation, and that even if that means certain towns will have to become isolated enclaves, their situations will not be starkly different from today.

    The opposing camp, which includes Damri, Elhayani and Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan, is opposed in principle to the establishment of a Palestinian state, no matter how small and non-contiguous it might be.

    Pressed as to why he opposed the plan’s envisioning of a Palestinian state when, under the deal, it wouldn’t be in control of its borders or have an army, Damri claimed this was the same rationale used during the Gaza disengagement, which ultimately led to Hamas’s takeover of the Strip.

    “I have no problem with giving them greater municipal control in order to improve their day to day lives, but once you grant them a state, you can’t go back,” he said.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. left, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, center, and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin during a meeting to discuss mapping extension of Israeli sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, held in the Ariel settlement, February 24, 2020. (David Azagury/US Embassy Jerusalem)
    Damri recognized that the offer put forward by Trump may be the best one the US will ever be willing to present and that it may slide off the table completely after the November presidential election. However, he said he was prepared to forgo US support for annexation if the administration refused to take the Yesha Council’s requested alterations of the conceptual map into account.

    “As of today, according to the Oslo Accords, 60% of [the West Bank] is under Israeli control. I prefer this current status over what’s presented in this plan,” Damri insisted. “We reached half a million residents under this current status and that was in the context of an international agreement.”

    While he said applying Israeli sovereignty to his regional council and others in the West Bank was a worthy goal, he was prepared to pass on the opportunity rather than “put the residents of the plan’s created enclaves at risk.”

    He noted that annexing the Golan Heights in 1982 did not prevent successive Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, from negotiating its possible return to Syria.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-leaders-put-out-map-they-claim-shows-trump-plan-for-palestinian-state/

  36. THIS I believe, is “the other shoe” which I have been waiting for to drop, ever since the Embassy-to-Jerusalem move.

  37. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    I do not know what Kushner told the Arabs.

    Israel should pocket the 30% sovereignty or more in July. State as Bibi and Gantz have that Israel agrees to negotiate with the PA. However state that agreeing to negotiate from the plan does NOT mean Israel agrees to all the plan. Israel reserves the right to apply sovereignty to other areas in Judea/Samaria.

  38. Q.E.D.!!! Arutz7 27/05/20 13:52 “US demanding Israel drop claims to areas beyond sovereignty plan. Israeli officials say US is pushing Israel to accept sovereignty plan as final border, drop claims to rest of Judea & Samaria”

    The Trump administration has called for the boundaries set by Israel’s sovereignty plan to become Israel’s eastern border, with Israel agreeing to give up its demands to apply sovereignty over the remaining parts of Judea and Samaria, according to a report by Galei Tzahal Wednesday afternoon.

    According to the report, which cited unnamed members of the Israeli coalition government, the Trump administration has pushed for the joint US-Israeli mapping team, which is delineating the boundaries of the areas to be placed under Israeli sovereignty, to define those new boundaries as the borders of the State of Israel.

  39. @ andyoistins:
    Sounds good to me but nobody’s offering to do that, are they? The question is should the national camp support applying sovereignty to most of the Jewish communities in Yesha, now, or just wait until a consensus can be built for applying sovereignty throughout Judea and Samaria, or at least Area C, and leave the Jews there to live under military rule indefinitely.

  40. @ Bear Klein:
    You may be right, but Kushner did try to sell this to the Arabs by saying this puts a ceiling on Jewish aspirations. Did he mean that?

  41. The biggest mistake would be not to apply sovereignty at all. Oslo is dead the PLO/PA just made it official. They claim all the land. Israel should minimally apply sovereignty to the 30% in the Trump plan and possibly more. Apply in it stages take the 30% in July. Plus make a clear statement we are planning to apply sovereignty to other specified areas in the future but are holding out now as we are willing to negotiate from the terms of the Trump Vision. Israel can say we have not agreed to the whole plan but are willing to negotiate with the Palestinians from it.

  42. I agree with Ted. Pocket sovereignty now that will have USA’s backing. If possible quietly behind the scenes negotiate a slightly better map. Doing this in public will raise Trump’s ire.

    The Trump plan has put the Pal-Arabs in a corner. The plans’ is saying to the Palestinians, these are the rules if you want to negotiate and want a state plus $50 billion to start it.

    Israel gets its security needs up front and recognition of sovereignty of ALL “Settlements” plus the Jordan Valley/ Northern Dead Sea Area. Since the Pal-Arabs have said NO to the plan and will not negotiate, Israel will not have to move ONE centimeter.
    The Pals will NOT agree to Jerusalem including the OLD City and Holy Places as Israeli, nor waive the right of return of Pal-Arabs to Israel, they will not agree to accept the Jordan Valley as Israeli, nor accept the Israeli right to all of the Jewish Towns (“settlements)” as Israeli land.
    In fact in 4 years Israel will be able to build anywhere in Judea/Samaria plus apply sovereignty.

    The waiting and going along with a plan that is actually an ultimatum to the Pal-Arab leaders to make true peace and accept the Nation-State of the Jewish of people Israel as your permanent neighbor in peace and co-existence or forgo the possibility of a state.

    Since within four years the Pal-Arabs are not going to demilitarize Gaza nor accept Israel as its permanent neighbor the negative points of the plan for Israel are mute. The whole onus is on the Palestinians to make peace. Unlike the Obama days when Israel was supposed to let out prisoners so Israel could have the good graces of Abbas talking to Israel. Israel stopped building for 9 months to get Abbas to talk to it for two weeks at Obama’s insistence.

    Realistically, no international leader will ever offer Israel more than Trump just did. The plan was made with the idea of getting Arab countries on board and off the Palestinian ship. It has started working.

    So the compromises Israel makes in the plan are mostly theoretical and not on the ground. Sometimes you need to know when to take a win!

  44. I can see both sides. Not having a crystal ball, I don’t know who’s right. On the one hand, I can recall other conditional concessions, 242, Oslo, where the conditions were not met and yet more concessions were later demanded by the international goyim and their quisling lapdogs than Israel’s leaders ever agreed to and the concessions were never revoked; on the other hand, possession is nine tenths of the law. Area C is and has remained under Israeli military rule all this time, and as long as that remains in place for the rest of it, I don’t know how to tell if this is an opportunity or a trap. Yes, Ben Gurion did agree to the Partition Plan, but he also said, that no one would or could ever relinquish Israel’s right to the whole land in principle. It’s the principle we are debating here and whether to concede it in principle rather than anything having to with practicality in the forseeable future. I am also reminded of the parable of Solomon and the two alleged mothers of the baby, and how he awarded the baby to the mother who preferred to relinquish her baby than to cut it in two, killing it, and giving each alleged mother a half. Don’t know if it applies or not, but how the world sees how Israelis see this will influence who will influence them, us or the enemy. I said Israelis instead of Jews, though it also matters how Jews in the diaspora see it, to a lesser extent, but, we are a lost cause for the most part, at least this generation is.

  45. While it will take a lot of nerve, I am intrigued by the idea of sovereignty over the entire territory without approval.