Netanyahu: We want to annex settlements with US support, not without
Israel’s best interest is served in annexing West Bank settlements with United States support and not without, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday as he made a campaign stop in the Jordan Valley.
“We have brought about an unequivocal statement from [US] President [Donald] Trump that he will recognize the application of our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea and on all of our communities in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said. This means “all of them without any exception” he stressed adding that it also include the vast area that surrounded them.
In speaking of the Trump peace plan which offers Israel sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank, in the first phase of the process rather than at the end, Netanyahu touted this point. Under past plans, Israel had to give something first in order to receive something later and borders were dependent on Palestinian approval. Where as in this plan, Israel apply sovereignty without “Palestinian consent,” Netanyahu said.
He explained that the Ronen Peretz, the director-general of his office, was already working on mapping the territory. The US has said that a six-member joint Israeli-American committee has to map the area and only then can sovereignty be applied.
