Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi has said that Israel will not annex the Jordan Valley, according to a television report last Wednesday.
Both Netanyahu and Gantz are begging Abbas to negotiate.
Shaked spoke out amid growing reports that Israel planned a partial sovereignty plan over settlement blocs and would not at this time annex the full 30% allowed.
BY TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Mevo’ot Yericho in the Jordan Valley (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
Israeli plans to apply sovereignty over portions of the West Bank will not include the Jordan Valley, Yamina MK and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked told Army Radio.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has given up on the Jordan Valley” because of the opposition from the Arab world, Shaked said adding that her party has received reports to this effect.
Shaked spoke out amid growing reports that Israel planned a partial sovereignty plan over settlement blocs and would not at this time annex the full 30% allowed it under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which he unveiled in January.
Shaked charged that the sovereignty map included in Trump’s plan had been drawn up by Netanyahu. “He worked for three years for this plan, and he can make changes to it, as long as his coalition agrees,” Shaked said.
Just hours earlier Netanyahu indicated just the opposite when he spoke of important of the Jordan Valley in addressing a Christians United for Israel virtual conference.
Trump’s plan provided Israel with defensible borders “including the strategic Jordan Valley,” Netanyahu said.
Still, speculation has been high that Israel would move forward with only a partial annexation plan, with Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz preferring this option.
Both Netanyahu and Gantz are set to meet with visiting US officials, US special envoy Avi Berkowitz and a member of the joint Israeli-US mapping Committee Scott Leith, who is typically stationed in Washington.
With three days left to go until July 1, the earliest date by which Netanyahu can apply sovereignty, no final decisions have been made with regard to the sovereignty map.
The settler leadership in the Yesha Council is split on Trump’s plan, with Yesha Council head and Jordan Valley Regional Council head David Elhayani leading the charge against the plan.
He supports sovereignty, just not under Trump’s terms.
Netanyahu must choose between a sovereignty plan that is good for Israel or one that shores up Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi.
As part of the Yesha Council campaign, settler leaders resurrected Netanyahu’s election campaign slogan, in which he had asked the voters to support a right-wing government under his leadership or a left-wing one that included Tibi.
“Bibi or Tibi,” Netanyahu would say.
Yesha Council head David Elhayani echoed that sentiment on Monday when he said, “We are saying to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the clearest way possible — go either in the way of Tibi’s way, Abu Mazen and the Left or go in the way of full sovereignty on all the settlements.”
Elhayani added that this sovereignty should not include support for a Palestinian state and or any settlement freeze.
“I call on you [Netanyahu] to fulfill your promises,” Elhayani said.
@ Reader:
Biblical Israel included from “The River of Egypt” which has been identified as Wadi-El Arish (Where the Hyksos capital Avaris was situated), and in modern terms an ancient branch of the Nile Delta closest to Israel, later dried up, and now only occasionally seasonal. The Euphrates is more problematic, but if ancient Israel included part of Syria is was possible. It’s only a passage in the Tanach anyway, and not anything near reality. Besides that promise was made to Abraham, and his descendants include Arabs, so it has been fulfilled……
@ Reader:
Are we now competing for the #1 position in a race to boast about who read what first. …..? Well….I hurt my leg so I’m not running. I pointed out that I read only the most nationalistic outlet, and that does not apply to Times (centre-left), Jerusalem Post-(centre.left), Y-News (Left), nor Ha’Aretz ( horizontally left and destined for outhouse use).
So whether you read it 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, …(Mazeltov) means not a thing. I am still waiting to find out what really will be happening about extending sovereignty. I hardly think that Netanyahu will not include the Jordan Valley, but all I can hope for is….
a definite MAYBE… What pressure is the US putting in Israel about it…? You may have heard something since you can read minds from thousands of miles away……
Just kidding, but as I said, you do the research, and I don’t. As for the P.A. there isn’t a single truth in the whole stinking mess of them, so, if whatever they say actually happens, it’s pure coincidence-or they’ve been handed an Israeli decision to announce first, to give them the illusion of “face”…..
@ Bear Klein:
As did Golda Meir and Levi Eshkol before him. The diplomatic gutting of Israel has been by salami tactics. It reminds me of the joke about the farmer who has a sheep with 3 legs. A journalist asks him why he has only 3 legs but the farmer just keeps telling all these stories about how wonderful the sheep is and how it saved his family from a fire and a lot of other stories. Finally, he admits: “Well, you don’t eat a sheep like that all at once!”
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Begin said no to giving up Judea/Samaria.
@ Reader:
Moreover, taking and keeping territory taken in a defensive war is legal in international law. The big lie that the international community has been pushing is the canard that it was not a defensive war on the part of Israel.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Gaza and Sinai weren’t parts of Biblical Israel.
I don’t know why Begin and Shamir did what they did (they were both old then and they had to contend with probably the cunningest politicians in the world) but I think that they and their generation were of a completely different caliber than Netanyahu, and they would certainly not do what he ended up doing to the country.
Did you watch that presentation by Mark Langfan that I posted a couple of days ago?
It really drives home the point (with maps, etc.) that the Arab state in Judea and Samaria is like a stab in the heart for Israel which is left completely indefensible and at the mercy of that Arab state.
@ Reader:
Funny, Shamir doesn’t mention Gaza in his statement of principles. And why did Shamir go along with the 20 year line of wanting to talk to the Arabs about making concessions? I dunno. He doesn’t sound all that hard line to me, in practice. Begin gave up Sinai. Seems to me the last PM who just said no was Golda. Am I mistaken?
@ Edgar G.:
“the reward” Well, N. didn’t mind going down in history as someone who gave away most of Hebron to the Arabs, or as someone who kept freezing the settlement construction which largely explains Israel’s failure to settle Judea and Samaria, and facing a prospect of a PA state on 70% of it (God forbid), and he accepted a Palestinian state in principle based on some “conditions”.
When people keep doing the same thing, this usually means they kind of enjoy it.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Unfortunately, all the true Zionists are dead.
The current politicians are puppets.
A proof Kahane was right:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157449#.T_K7-vXe6cM
Shamir’s principles:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/282578
Amazing that you and Adam are allowed to post incredibly long comments, and mine which is 1/2 the length was trashed repeatedly.
@ Edgar G.:
I saw this info BEFORE it was printed on Arutz7.
It was also dated EARLIER (on Times of Israel) than the announcement that there will be no annexation on July 1st which meant almost 100% that the annexation was cancelled because of the earlier PA announcement.
@ Reader:@ Reader:I am continually reminded of this insightful 1976 article.
“Israel, US and the Stinking Fish”
Rabbi Meir Kahane
“Many times I have spoken of the Talmudic parable of the king, his servant, and the fish. Never was it more apt.
‘Once there was a king who sent his servant to buy a fish. The servant returned with a fish that stank. In fury the king gave the servant a choice of three punishments: “Eat the fish, get whipped for the fish, or pay for the fish.” In common with most people, the servant chose not to reach into his pocket and he decided to eat the stinking fish but after two bites the stench made him give up and he decided to get whipped for it. The pain of the lashes, however, made him stop that, too, and he cried out, “I will pay for the fish!”
‘And so the fool ate the fish, got whipped for the fish and, in the end, had to pay for it, anyhow. Those in Israel and without, who refuse to understand that nothing will deter America from demanding that Israel make the maximum concessions, play the same fool. Those who do not understand that there is nothing that Israel can possible do, that there are no compromises it can make, that there is nothing short of full retreat to the 1967 borders that will satisfy the United States-are the same fools as the servant who ate, got whipped and in the end had to pay anyhow,
‘Their refusal to make the difficult choice of telling the Americans “no”, now, at this moment, will see them making the retreats they hope will avert American anger; it will see this effort fail even as the frontier moves from its present lines within the Arab heartland to new ones close to the Jewish cities; and most important, the Americans will make the same demands they always have envisioned since the days of the Roger Plan-total Israeli withdrawal. And since this is a thing that not even the most dovish of Israelis will agree to, the result will be an ultimate Israeli firm “no”, an ultimate American anger of the kind all men of “new initiative” propose to avert today by compromise, and exactly the same conditions of confrontation that would come anyhow if the Israelis said their “no” today. There would be one great difference, however, a “no” today will bring the crisis while Israel stands poised near the Arab capitols. A “no” tomorrow, after all the hapless and confused compromises and “initiatives,” will bring the same crisis near Tel Aviv, Beersheva and Netanya.
‘This is what happens when foolish and confused Israelis, by refusing to pay the price of saying “no” to the stinking fish of pressure, attempt to eat it, submit to getting beaten over it and then learn to their dismay that there is no escape from the difficult decision that they should have made in the first place.
‘Let the Israeli government, its men of “new initiative” and the Jewish leaders in America understand several basic axioms:
1) America is committed to the Roger Plan and the world’s interpretation
of Security Council Resolution 242, i.e. Israeli withdrawal from all (but insignificant) parts of the lands of 1967. This includes the Golan Heights, Gaza, the entire West bank and the entire Sinai as well as changing Jerusalem’s present Jewish sovereignty status.
2) American interests lie, in the minds of most officials in Washington, with
Arab oil, the huge potential Arab market and with supplanting Soviet influence with American. This means, at best, an “even-handed” policy rather than a pro-Israeli one.
3) America is moving steadily to recognition of the “Palestinians” as a people
and of whomever they decide to have as their leaders. Those leaders are clearly the PLO and already the move to “moderate” the PLO, “public-relations-wise” is underway so that Washington can more easily pressure Israel into recognizing them.
4) The Ford-Kissinger administration is determined to prevent stagnation and
will pressure Israel into concession after concession.
5) No administration will got o war for Israel and no administration will continue
the present aid level no matter what Israel does or concedes. The frantic search for human allies will end as unsuccessfully as those Jews in the past who forgot what faith in the Jewish G-d was and who turned to Egypt or Assyria or other “allies” for help, only to learn to their dismay that the allies betrayed them.
‘Stinking fish are not made to be eaten or to get whipped or. One must have the courage to look at the truth and pay the bitter price of honesty. America is tired of the Israeli nuisance and wishes it would eat the fish already. The time to loudly proclaim “no” is now.”
@ Edgar G.:
Another good one is the New York Paper, “The Jewish Press.” Thank you for reminding me of “Think Israel, Edgar. I had it but it was buried under “mobile bookmarks.” I keep screwing up the captcha. Clever device for weeding out liberals, I must say, as it makes it difficult for people who have trouble adding 2+2 to post.
“I understand the Arabs and the Arabs understand me; neither of us understand you.” – Kahane in preamble to debate with Dershowitz.
@ Reader:
I read all of this, including the highlighted, on Arutz. I never bother with any other outlet except the most nationalistic. Think-Israel is a voracious one. . The “reward” as you designate it, is a very “back-handed, pejorative historical form of anathema that merits a special prayer inserted in our Yom Kipur Machzir.. (even a “Pulsa Denura)….and one that Netanyahu would never “aspire ” to.
Yes, you are correct; I saw just 30 mins ago, that he said that 1st July would not mean anything….(except a digit on the calendar).. ……..But what is his reason…? What has he planned…?? We just don’t know….!. Once he’s changed the date that he so many times announced, …..then all bets are off…
I don’t have the kaoch to do the research that you do. It may be that Ted, as he so often does, hs the right info, and Bear, who also is savvy on these matters, agrees with him, so we’ll see. As I said earlier, I’m hopeful -but not expectant..
@ Edgar G.:
I don’t know, BUT here is the latest from Times of Israel:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-counter-to-us-peace-plan-palestinians-say-ready-for-direct-talks-with-israel/
There will be no annexation on July 1st (Netanyahu said), I guess they’ll be too busy giving away 70% of Judea and Samaria to you-know-who.
Maybe his reward will be going down in history as the Prime Minister who gave away 70% of Judea and Samaria to please the US.
@ Reader:
If that’s an insinuation it’s a very silly one. (maybe just a loose, idle drip..?) What reward was in your mind…Cash under the counter, an insider stock tip……The US troops landing and kidnapping Mandelblit and his gangsters, along with the Supreme Court….making Bennett and Shaked “offers they just can’t refuse” to get them out of his “hair’…. .what…?
@ greenrobot:
N. is not afraid of the 4th elections because Blue/White has just lost seats based on the new polls.
He is not feeling sorry for the PALS, he is kissing up to the US.
Maybe he thinks he’ll be rewarded for Israel’s “painful concessions”?
@ dreuveni:
Israel just did another “Restrain me, or I’ll do something you don’t want me to!” performance.
Israel does it all the time, they got it down to science.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Make What exactly available,? And you know Sebastien, (you already have led us to the Avi Goldreich translation) unfortunately I have NO computer skills at all so wouldn’t know how.. As for the 3000 accounts since 330 CE, I found this on the Internet. I typed in “18th and 19th cent. travellers in Palestine”. Right at the beginning of the page it shows..
“Travelogues of Palestine, Wikipedia”, from which I culled briefly the 3000 accounts. Oliphant is mentioned only as one of them. But a separate heading would likely show much more.
The “Travelogues” entry is, itself ,very informative….
@ Edgar G.: Wow, Edgar! This is dynamite stuff. Please make it available online so it can be widely distributed.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
I see that you have read the Avi Goldreich translation, with full information. WHY is this not made public… Why is the Reland Book not translated and published. I only accidentally some years ago came across his name and curious, followed it up.
It must be 4 years ago now, but there’s a little story attached to my tale. After reading Avi’s description of the “Palaestina”, I tried to contact him, and was replied to by his close associate Nurit Greenger, whose articles you occasionally see in Israel Hayom, and others. We had a considerable email correspondence. I then contacted Haifa Uni. and spoke about their copy of the book with a “professor” who turned out to be very antagonistic and derided Goldreich’s translation/description….I WAS surprised….
I persevered and finally contacted a more friendly guy there, who told me that Utrecht University was at that moment having a 2 month Seminar on the works of their most famous Professor.
Therefore, I contacted a few Utrecht profs and finally got to the king-pin of the Seminar. He told me in no uncertain terms that Reland was NOTED for using only the most accurate and meticulous information available, and confirmed by himself..
So Mark Twain, was of the same mind, and also other travellers who were even more specific. I just looked up on Wiki, and found that there are about 3,000 works by travellers in Palestine since CE 330 to 1890……so there is a rich harvest….. if any Jewish Organisation (dare I mention the Israeli Govt..??) or publishing house want to finally destroy the mythical “Canaanite Ancestry Dragon”…..
Reinhold Rohricht catalogued them all in 1890. One was Laurence Oliphant, of whom you certainly know. It’s interesting to find that his secretary when living in Palestine, was Naftali Imber of “Hatikvah” fame. Oliphant’s life is fascinating, I read a biography about him many ears ago, but don’t think I have it now..
@ Ted Belman:
I agree with you Ted I believe that Israel will apply sovereignty to all Jewish Towns in Judea/Samaria plus the Jordan Valley/North Dead Sea Area ~30% of Judea & Samaria.
I believe all these other rumors are just that false rumours to try and change what is going to occur.
Don’t you believe it.
@ Edgar G.:
Thank you for the Reland reference Edgar. Leftists are always asking, “what was the majority population in the 19th century?” I already know to answer that in Jerusalem, at least, it was Jewish for most of the 19th century, and of course, the Twain reference, though they come back with citing other areas that had Muslim majorities. But, you don’t have to go back 1300 or 2000 years to see a Jewish majority and a paucity of Muslims. This is an important reference. Not many know it. I found this article about it and have posted it to a couple of sites on facebook.
https://palestineisraelconflict.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/a-tour-and-census-of-palestine-year-1695-no-sign-of-arabian-names-or-palestinians/comment-page-1/
@ greenrobot:
For a true advocate of Eretz Yisrael, and not just as a crafty politician, it should make NO difference what the Arabs do , think (if they think). Israel should do what is best for Israel. The Arabs are interlopers, illegal immigrants (and the majority, men and women are terrorists sworn to kill all the Jews), well proven by British Colonial Office documents and letters of the 1920s and 1930s long before Independence.
Also, and very powerfully, in her masterful book, “From Time Immemorial” Joan Peters published powerful statistical evidence, carefully collected, which showed the very same thing.
The very famous and meticulously correct, Adriaan Reland went even further, saying that in the whole of Palestine when he caused his census and survey to be made, there were not only NO Arabs there, and none except a few nomadic Bedouin, but the whole population was mostly Jews, with some Christians and Samaritans.
Also, not a single place name was an original Arabic name, but corruptions from the Biblical Hebrew. His “Palaestina Ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata” bares the whole later fictitious Arab storyline.,
@ erwag:
@ erwag:
Of course, Israel controls the Jordan Valley-as always, and it’s only a matter of semantics. But He PROMISED, dozens of times repeated, that Sovereignty would include the Jordan Valley -and around the lower part of the Dead Sea. (which I haven’t seen mentioned lately).
Netanyahu seems majorly “dis-com-bobbled, ever since the failed 3 elections, when he didn’t get a right wing majority. He seemed to suddenly “evaporate”. or collapse, .as if what we’d been seeing ALL the time previously, had been a rubber, inflated simulacrum of a man, or a cardboard picture, with a fold at the centre. I believe that the machinations of Mandelblit and his crew have been the catalyst, and beginning of his collapse. The handing over the most powerful Ministries to B&W were disastrous and incomprehensible, as well as excluding Yemina, which regardless of personal differences, has always loyally supported LIKUD and Netanyahu.
He’s doing all the things of which he should be doing the mirror-image opposite. Statesmanship aside, and political chicanery apart, this is when he should SHOW in NO uncertain terms that HE IS a staunch patriot for the whole of Eretz Yisrael.
But…….He may surprise us yet. Conjurers often do. I’m hopeful, but not expectant.
It has been obvious for several weeks that Bibi has been waiting for “pressure from the Arab states” to avoid fulfilling his election promise. Sorry guys; whatever his recored so far, he can no longer be trusted.
@ Edgar G.: I sit here in America, and can’t understand why anyone would give up the Jordan Valley. I have always understood the Valley is needed as a strategic buffer to protect against attacks from the east. So, why would he leave the Jordan Valley out?
If the reports are true, although Israel controls the Jordan Valley as if it were Israeli sovereign territory, Netanyahu will be seen a backing down from the ragged pants Abbas and Hussein. Also from his 9 seat seemingly dominant coalition partner, the blockhead Gantz.
It will ruin him in an election, if his promises will be based only on his word alone, and, after the brief excitement of legalising the few blocks has abated, the people will tun on him.
I have always supported Netanyahu, because of his brilliant political tactics , and felt that he had an “in-the-long-run” plan for all Eretz Yisrael, but, if the reports are true, and the Valley is left out because of threats from his pensioners Abbais and Abdullah, I will abandon him.
I will conclude that-since he does nothing without long range planning, -like a chess player- that he has been fooling us all the time…..which may or may not, be true. He may have been, -as I know he has in the past-, just swaying with the wind, But I can chose as my feelings dictate.
Netanyahu, 4th election or the whole thing or 60%. Stop feeling sorry for the PALS who wasted 53 years of your lives not making a decision. Make it for them.
4th election or 30 %.
The slogan should be: “4th Election Now.”