West Bank Annexation Remains Top Priority for Israel
- West Bank Annexation Remains Top Priority for Israel
by NAJLA M. SHAHWAN, https://www.dailysabah.com/
With coalition negotiations underway in Israel, West Bank annexation remains a top priority on the agenda for the Israeli government right now. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reached an agreement with his political rival, Benny Gantz, for an emergency unity government to confront the coronavirus, wants to pursue Trump’s so-called peace plan and annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.
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Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz acquiesced to what he considered Netanyahu’s genuine call to “put politics aside” for the sake of the country’s welfare, splitting his party apart in the process, while the prime minister’s concern over the pandemic was never his only priority. The Israeli leaders agreed on a plan to start a formal process this summer to claim sections of the occupied Palestinian territory as part of Israel, the daily Haaretz newspaper reported.
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The scheme would be presented to the government if Washington agrees to it, the Israeli newspaper said. The United States previously did not object to the annexation of Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. After the Cabinet passes it, the plan would require the approval of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
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For months, Netanyahu and his fellow right-wing leaders have pledged to carry out unilateral annexations as soon as possible – with the deliberate goal of making the occupation permanent and preventing the creation of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
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Opposition to annexation
Annexation of large swaths of the occupied West Bank, with the full support of the U.S. government, will constitute a paradigm shift for those who have been fighting for a two-state solution. Liberal Zionist organizations – from J Street to the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) to Americans for Peace Now (APN) to the New Israel Fund (NIF) – have long worked toward realizing the vision of Israel as a democratic state with a Jewish demographic majority and defined borders, separated from the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They are now faced with the imminent annexation of the West Bank and are grappling with how to respond.
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The Jewish pro-peace groups based in the U.S. continue to insist, as they have for years, that a negotiated two-state solution is the only viable or desirable final outcome.
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On April 8, 11 members of the U.S. Congress issued the following statement regarding reports of a new coalition government in Israel which agreed to move forward with unilateral annexation of West Bank territory:
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“As strong supporters of Israel and the United States-Israel relationship, we are deeply concerned by reports that the coalition government being formed in Israel intends to move forward with unilateral annexation of West Bank territory. This runs counter to decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy and to the will of the House of Representatives as recently expressed in H.Res.326, which opposes unilateral annexation and explicitly warns against the dangers of such an effort for peace in the region and Israel’s security.
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“Amidst the current global health pandemic and financial crisis, we urge all parties involved in the formation of a new government not to create an additional crisis by agreeing to move forward with unilateral annexation, the effects of which could yield additional catastrophic consequences for all parties in the region and beyond, the statement continued.
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9 … I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a [a]synagogue of Satan.