NY Times….
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Tuesday that he would move to annex much of the occupied West Bank if voters return him to power in the election next week, a change that could dramatically reshape the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The move would give the nation “secure, permanent borders” for the first time in its history, he said. But it would also reduce any future Palestinian state to an enclave encircled by Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu said he wanted to seize what he called the “unique, one-off opportunity” afforded him by the Trump administration, which has expressed openness to Israeli annexation of at least parts of the West Bank.
“We haven’t had such an opportunity since the Six Day War, and I doubt we’ll have another opportunity in the next 50 years,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a news conference in Ramat Gan. “Give me the power to guarantee Israel’s security. Give me the power to determine Israel’s borders.”
Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. Most of the world considers it occupied territory and Israeli settlements there to be illegal.
Battling for political survival, and in a dead heat or slightly behind in the polls against Benny Gantz, a centrist former army chief of staff, Mr. Netanyahu has tried mightily to shift the focus of the contest from the corruption cases against him to his strong suit: national security.
He has highlighted Israel’s increasingly overt military campaign against Iranian expansion and even unveiled a new site where he said Iran had pursued nuclear weapons….
image…BBC
This is every bit as comparable to Russia Annexing Crimea.
No, not at all the same. It should be fairly obvious.
And I say this as someone who hopes the Blue and White Party wins.
Yes Z on Netanyahu….
Every American President since the 1967 War has tried to keep Israel from annexing land they won in a war they almost lost….
Sharon is the one who pushed hard for the settlements….
Biden , i now remember got a promise, on a hold up on the settlements during the Obama admin only to find out as soon as the door on airplane closed for him to go home the deal went in garbage with an announcement of more settlements ….
if Biden gets elected Bibi COULD BE IN DEEP SHIT….
Sharon is the one who gave up the settlements.
And the violence against Israel got worse.
I would like to see Zreebs sources. I know he really dislikes Israel. The fact that not enough Jews are being killed to satisfy those who surround Israel is because Israel works hard to prevent that.
If the enemies of Israel could “grab land” there would be no Israel, and if they had their way, not a single Jew left anywhere on Earth.
As I said to Z?
Ariel Sharon was the one who did the settlements Garza and West Bank….
As a political he tried to back away from his early actions…
They ARE still there in the West Bank….
…
From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israel’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006. However, as Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on “clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank”, in a series of unilateral withdrawals…
More…
Amnesty International and other Human Rights Groups would argue that Israel’s Human Rights record is dismal.
Yes. There are some people who wish for rhe death of Jews just as regrets are people who wish for the deaths ofMuslums.
Here is terrorism deaths in Israel:
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/terrisraelsum.html
A Middle East Peace agreement is, in my opinion, NEVER gonna happen…
Both sides have no give….
And the no give has become politically lead weights that are immovable…
Then attempt to explain. On the surface, it just seems like a land grab.
Well, for one thing, Israel already has authority over those areas and has for years. Netanyahu seems to be politicking, perhaps out of desperation. Even if he did what he suggested, not much would fundamentally change.
The nations that Putin wants to take over are actually independent, autonomous countries.
Also, it is worth mentioning that the independent countries on the Crimea are not trying to destroy Russia or kill Russians. That is another big difference from those surrounding Israel. Putin has no need to be paranoid, Israel is right to be concerned about its security.
I hope the Blue and White Party does win and Netanyahu is retired. (I certainly supported him in the past.) The Blue and White Party, I believe, will act to defend Israel’s security and existence and is far different than the traditional leftist Labour Party. The left in Israel is virtually irrelevant presently.
The “land grab” on the other side would be far bigger as it relates to Israel.
I don’t think anyone would attempt to argue with that.
Nobody in Ukraine, etc, wants to take over Mother Russia. So, huge differences in comparison.
The only reason that Israel has “authority” over the West Bank is because if forcibly occupies it.
Jordan is not trying to destroy Israel. Yes, of course there are Jordanians who would love to see Israel disappear just as there are Ukrainians who would love to see Russia disappear and have committed terrorism in Russia. But, while extenely well publicized when the occur, the number is Israeli deaths caused by Palestinians or Jordanians are minuscule – especially when you consider Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinians. There are enormously more people killed by mass shootings by conservative extremists in the US, than Jews who are killed by Jordanians or Palestinians in Israel.
Just because Crimea has been home to many Russians for generations is no better of an excuse than some Irsraelis have relatively received Permission by the Israeli government to occupy in settlements in the West Bank.