After over a year of back and forth, and multiple stalemates, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahol Lavan Chairman Benny Gantz have finally come to an agreement, paving the way for the establishment of a Likud-Kahol Lavan unity government. Their first order of business? Annexing the West Bank.
Israeli media reported on Monday that Netanyahu and Gantz agreed on a plan to begin formally annexing parts of the West Bank, as early as this summer.
According to Haaretz, the two rivals agreed that Netanyahu could bring an annexation proposal before the cabinet for a vote as early as July 10, on the condition that the move is supported by the United States, and “done in coordination with other international players.”
If the cabinet approves the proposal, it would come before a full Knesset vote, where it is likely to receive a majority of support from Israeli lawmakers who have largely adopted Netanyahu’s annexation policies.
Ever since the first round of Israel elections last year, annexation has been a major topic of discussion, with both Netanyahu and Gantz promising voters that if elected, they would annex large swaths of the West Bank, including the Jordan valley which makes up approximately one-third of the occupied territory.
When US President Donald Trump released his peace plan in January, he gave the green light to Israel to move forward with unilaterally annexing more Palestinian land, a move considered to be illegal by the international community.
In an urgent letter to Gantz and other Israeli MKs, Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now urged the lawmakers to veto any annexation proposals that come their way, saying it “would have grave consequences for Israel’s future.”
“As coalition negotiations continue, red lines need to be drawn to prevent the adoption of an extreme right-wing agenda,” the group said, adding that “annexation would not just violate international obligations, but also compromise Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, and critically endanger existing agreements and regional harmony with Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority.”
Head of the Arab-majority Joint List, MK Ayman Odeh tweeted his opposition to the move, saying:
“Gantz’s submission on the subject of annexation is the most serious of all. This means eliminating any chance of peace and the establishment of an apartheid state with Jewish citizens and Palestinian subjects. Democracy, equality and social justice all depend on just peace and the end of the occupation.”
Coronavirus provides perfect cover
With the entire globe focused on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, analysts say Monday’s agreement is part of a strategic effort by Netanyahu to accomplish his right-wing agenda, under the guise of addressing the COVID-19 crisis.
“The coronavirus pandemic has been the biggest gift to Netanyahu,” Palestinian political analyst Dianna Buttu told Mondoweiss.
“Israel is treating the crisis as a ‘war’, and during wartime it’s easy for everyone to rally behind the person who is in office, including the very person (i.e. Gantz) who said he would never sit in a government with Netanyahu.”
With unrivaled support, Netanyahu is able to advance annexation plans, which Buttu says he is urgently trying to push forward before the US elections go into full swing later this year.
“If there’s any time to go forward with annexation, it’s now, when everyone is focused on something else,” Buttu said.
Additionally, with the entire West Bank under lockdown due to a COVID-19 outbreak that has so far infected 260 Palestinians, Israel will face much less resistance to its plans in the form of protests and grassroots activism.
“With everyone being ordered to stay in their homes, grassroots resistance is hindered,” Buttu noted. “Israel is using this opportunity to continue its occupation practices such as night raids, arrests, and home demolitions, and all the while activists cannot come together to protest or protect their communities because of the coronavirus.”
While the situation on the ground won’t immediately change if the Knesset approves an annexation bill, once the coronavirus pandemic is over, the reality on the ground in the West Bank will shift dramatically.
According to Buttu, the number one thing that will change as a result of annexation, will be the ease through which settlers will be able to expand their boundaries in the West Bank.
“Building homes in Ariel settlements will become just as easy as building a new development in Haifa,” she said.
“Instead of having to navigate through the military apparatus, and get Knesset and military approval before any new construction, settlements will soon be able to get a simple municipal approval in order to build more homes and take more Palestinian land.”
Wow! Further confirmation that “Israel” is a ship lost at sea. No wonder ever increasing numbers of Jews are leaving and fewer and fewer are arriving.
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-netanyahu-s-annexation-ploy-sacrifices-war-on-coronavirus-to-the-idol-of-settlements-1.8745107
“Netanyahu’s Annexation Ploy Sacrifices Israel’s War on Coronavirus to the Idol of Settlements”
“Just when it will need U.S. and world’s goodwill more than ever, Jerusalem is set to spit in their faces” by Chemi Shalev, Haaretz, April 6/20
“The coronavirus pandemic has created national, medical, social, economic and human crises throughout the world, including Israel. Elderly are dying, hospitals collapsing, unemployment multiplying, economies are at a standstill and despondency is creeping into every household.
“It is a genuine emergency, one of the most acute Israel has ever encountered, one that demands unity, dedication of purpose and the sidelining of non-critical issues and policies.
“So what is the most urgent thing for Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing bloc at this time of unprecedented dire need? Annexation. Seriously. Vital-shmytal, unity-shmoonity, dead-shmed – what is uppermost on their minds, the pivotal make or break issue, is to change the legal status of the Jordan River Valley and settlement blocs and to do it now.
“Netanyahu’s ultimatum to Benny Gantz on annexation, which has been holding up the formation of a so-called ‘national unity government’ is so absurd that it strengthens widespread suspicions that it’s all a ruse. Netanyahu, according to this view, planted the annexation mine in his talks with Gantz so that it would blow up the coalition talks at the last moment and scuttle the chances of achieving an emergency government.
“Moreover, Netanyahu seems to believe, Gantz’s opposition to annexing all the areas supposedly earmarked for Israel in Donald Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ will serve as a hammer with which Netanyahu can castigate Gantz and the center-left as defeatist wimps in the fourth consecutive election campaign, which, according to this scenario, has been the prime minister’s final objective all along.
“The alternative explanation is even more appalling: Netanyahu is serious. He wants to sculpt his ‘legacy,’ Netanyahu’s aides claim, and to exploit what may very well be the last months in what increasingly seems like Trump’s first and only term.
“This is how Netanyahu and the right want to acquire the land of Israel: Not by suffering, as the Talmud instructs, but by subterfuge and chicanery, with the blessings of a wantonly reckless U.S. president and under cover of a terrible disease plaguing humanity. Let’s use this window of opportunity, the right is saying, while the goyim – and possibly Israeli public opinion as well – are otherwise engaged.
“To put it plainly: At a time when Israel will need all the assistance and goodwill it can get, it will spit in the world’s face. Months before a Democratic president seems likely to take over the White House, Israel will show him the finger. Just when its biggest trading partner, the European Union, will start to revive and get its bearings, Israel will deliver a punch to the gut. And just when multilateral organizations and institutions start going back to normal, Israel will give them an open and shut case of breaking international law.
“At a time when Israel needs regional stability like a patient needs oxygen, it could snuff out peace with Jordan. Just when coronavirus is reshaping reality and possibly relations with Palestinians, Israel is planting a roadside bomb. At a time when Israel needs solidarity, social cohesion and mutual support more than ever, Netanyahu and his sidekicks are hell bent on sowing division and discord over annexation.
“Instead of focusing all the country’s energy on fighting coronavirus, the right wing will be inflaming internal tensions and rebuffing world criticism as blatant anti-Semitism. Wonderful.
“Annexing the Jordan River Valley or the settlements blocs near the Green Line will help Israel fight corona no more and no less than moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights: In other words, zero, zilch, nada or as they say in Yiddish, gurnisht min gurnisht. The Greater Land of Israel, it seems, is more important to the right than the State of Israel and the wellbeing of its citizens, which, corona or not, will be sacrificed to the Moloch of settlements and eternal domination of the Palestinians.
“Whoever lends his hand to such a move – Gantz first and foremost – is not placing Israel above all else, as his party slogan implies, but beneath all else. This is not the way patriots who love their country and cherish their people are supposed to behave. It’s more akin to idol-worshippers who cherish stones and symbols at the expense of humanity but nonetheless feel superior and strut around as if they were the last of the just. Amazing.”