Netanyahu tells settlers he is committed to negotiations with Palestinians

"We are standing before a historic opportunity to apply sovereignty on the territory of Judea and Samaria."

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Jordan Valley community of Mevo’ot Yericho in February 2020 (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Jordan Valley community of Mevo’ot Yericho in February 2020
(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged settlers to support the historic opportunity provided to Israel by US President Donald Trump’s sovereignty plan, during a meeting with the Yesha Council at his Jerusalem office on Tuesday.
"We are standing before a historic opportunity to apply sovereignty on the territory of Judea and Samaria," he said.
Netanyahu emphasized to the settler leadership that he was committed to negotiating a peace deal with the Palestinians based on the Trump plan. He also underscored that talks were ongoing with the US about its map for the application of sovereignty. Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, who is part of the joint Israeli-US mapping committee, also attended the meeting.
His two hours with settlers failed to quell their opposition to the plan. The oppositional forces are led by Yesha Council head David Elhayani and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.
They both object to any efforts to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank. They are also concerned about the map published with the Trump peace plan, which they argued creates a situation that would lead to a de facto settlement freeze and the demolition of 15 settlements.
The conversation was the first Netanyahu has had with the oppositional settler leadership and it came just one day after the settlers had met with one of the Prime Minister’s chief political rivals, Yamina Party head Naftali Bennet, as well as with the party’s Knesset faction.
Settlers left the meeting, still in opposition to the sovereignty map in its current form. They had agreed with Netanyahu not to reveal details of the meeting, but they spoke with The Jerusalem Post about their continued frustrations on the topic.
South Hebron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri said it wasn’t even possible for Netanyahu to secure their support at this stage, because to do so, they would need to see the final map and no one has shown them that document.
“My ability to be convinced is based on the details and I have not been given the details. What I do knows very problematic,” Damri said. At present, the map cuts the road from his region to Jerusalem, forcing all its residents to head only in the direction of Beersheba.
In concept, he agrees with Netanyahu that this is an historic opportunity, but in practice, the details are everything.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman also held fast to his position, but said he was at least satisfied that Netanyahu understood that he needed to be in dialogue with the settler leaders about the map.
“Since Washington, they [the Prime Minister’s Office] has not spoken with us. We did not know from them what was happening. If there is any optimism to come out of the meeting, it is that they now understand they have to speak with us,” he said.
Ne’eman was one of four settler leaders who were in Washington in January when the peace plan was unveiled and were briefed at the time by Netanyahu.
Initially, he said, the settlers were told that it was up to Israel to determine the details of the sovereignty map. “We were told 'it’s Israel’s decision, this is your map.' Then the US position changed and spoke of how ‘we’ [Israel and the US] have to decide about the map,” Ne’eman said. "Now we fear that the counters of the map will be solely determined by the US."
Others in attendance were Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, Beit El Council head Shai Alon and Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel.
After speaking with the settler leadership in opposition to the map, Netanyahu met separately with Efrat Council head Oded Revivi, who supports the Trump plan even in its current form.
Revivi said that some of the information about the map have been misinterpreted. It is his belief that a sovereignty could very likely move forward this summer.
“Every day that passes there are more and more indications that this is the direction we are going in,” Revivi said.
On Monday, Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz ordered IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi to prepare for the possibility that Israel would annex portions of the West Bank.


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