Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would ask the government to greenlight the extension of ‘sovereignty’ over the territory in the West Bank only if he wins the 2 March elections.
“As soon as we win, we’ll apply Israeli law to all of the Jewish communities in the Jordan Valley and in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said during a campaign event in Beit Shemesh, using Biblical terms for the West Bank.
“We, the Likud, won’t let this great opportunity slip from our grasp. But in order to guarantee it, in order to guarantee Israel’s borders, in order to guarantee the future of Israel, I need every Likud member this time around to go out and vote and get others out to vote. This time we’re getting everyone out of the house, we’re not leaving anyone behind,” he added.
The remarks apparently run counter to Netanyahu’s previous pledge to start extending ‘sovereignty’ over the territory immediately after the release of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East ‘peace’ plan on 28 January, so-called as “Deal of the Century”.
After meeting with Trump, Netanyahu told reporters that the Zionist entity could move to extend Israeli ‘sovereignty’ over the settlements as soon as 2 February.
The idea, however, was opposed by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who said that the US was hopeful that the Zionist entity would “wait until after the election” in March before applying Israeli law to chunks of the West Bank containing Israeli settlements.
“The hope is that they’ll wait until after the election, and we’ll work with them to try to come up with something,” Kushner said.
Source: Agencies
