Update: Netanyahu Responds to Sovereignty Bills:
Prime Minister’s Office: “The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset. The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere.”
Peloni: More revealing than this is the INN report that Trump gave his word to the Arab countries that Israel would not recognize sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and has threatened “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
An important point to be made here is the perjorative context in which it is claimed that Israel is “annexing” anything, which is utterly false. The extension of sovereignty only recognizes facts already in existence and as established in international law. Trump’s comment demonstrates a complete miscomprehension of what was proposed in the yesterday’s legislation.
Arab states, PA & Hamas join in condemnation of Israeli move
Senator Marco Rubio speaking at the 2012 CPAC in Washington, D.C. Photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Marco Rubio, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikipedia
After the Knesset passed two bills advancing the annexation of territories in Judea and Samaria over the opposition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary Marco Rubio warned that the action could be “threatening to the peace deal.”
One of the bills approved on Wednesday, put forward by MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party, called for the application of sovereignty to all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, while the other, put forward by Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, called for the application of Israeli sovereignty only in the city of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
Both bills passed narrowly and over the opposition by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party, who wanted to avoid offending the U.S.
Secretary Rubio, who is expected to arrive in Israel on Friday for a two-day visit as part of U.S. efforts to keep President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on track, criticized the move.
“They passed a vote in the Knesset, but the president has made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now,” Rubio told reporters before his flight to Israel. “We think there’s potential for [it to be even] threatening to the peace deal.”
“They’re a democracy, people are going to have their votes, people are going to take these positions, but at this time we think it might be counterproductive,” he added.
Rubio’s arrival will mark his fourth visit to Israel since being appointed Secretary of State in January.
The vote created a highly unusual constellation where the Likud Party abstained, the opposition parties Yisrael Beitenu, Yesh Atid and Blue and White supported the bill alongside the far-right parties Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, while opposition came from the far-left Democrats, Arab parties, and parts of the ultra-Orthodox parties.
Following the voting, Finance Minster Bezalel Smotrich, who ran on a platform of expanding settlements in Judea and Samaria and applying Israeli sovereignty there, called for Netanyahu to “apply full sovereignty to all the territories of Judea and Samaria.”
“Mr. Prime Minister, The Knesset has spoken,” Smotrich wrote to ?. “The people have spoken. The time has come to apply full sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria – the inheritance of our forefathers – and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbors, from a position of strength.”
Hebrew media reported that Netanyahu’s office sent a note to Smotrich, highlighting that the U.S. does not want Israel to apply sovereignty in the territories at this time: “When the vice president, Vance, is visiting here, you don’t stick a finger in his eye,” the message said.
The hawkish opposition party head Avigdor Liberman shared a statement on ?, saying, “Every time we bring up sovereignty laws, the Bibi-Tibi coalition tries to torpedo them. This time they didn’t succeed. Israeli sovereignty in the Land of Israel. They babble, we act. History!”
Lieberman was referring to Arab MK Ahmad Tibi, from the Ta’al party, which opposes Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
Meanwhile, the move was heavily criticized by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and several Arab states.
In a statement, Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry condemned the vote, saying it “strongly rejects the Knesset’s attempts to annex Palestinian land.”
“The occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, constitute a single geographic unit over which Israel has no sovereignty,” it said.
Hamas said in a statement, “The vote by the Knesset of the Zionist occupation on two bills to annex the West Bank and impose sovereignty over the so-called Ma’ale Adumim settlement ‘in the preliminary reading’ reflects the ugly face of colonial occupation, which insists on continuing its attempts to ‘legalize’ settlement and impose Zionist ‘sovereignty’ over the occupied Palestinian territories.”
“We affirm that the occupation’s frantic attempts to annex West Bank lands are invalid and illegitimate,” the terror group added.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the votes in the “strongest terms”, calling them a “blatant violation of the historical rights of the Palestinian people and a challenge to international law.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry also denounced the votes, expressing its “complete rejection of all settlement and expansionist violations.”
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry called the move “a blatant violation of international law, an undermining of the two-state solution, and an infringement on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of their independent, sovereign state, in a statement on ?.
One major issue is what the peace plan proposes. We don’t really know that except that it is a lengthy document with many, many options to include arguments that are controversial. Waving it around symbolically and threatening that the US would stop all support would be contra-productive for everyone although I can imagine that Israel would certainly use this breech of contract to improve its situation after all the compromises already in place.
If the INN report mentioned by Peloni is valid, Trump has given his word although nobody in Israel except maybe Bibi, who is in the know, have any idea what it is about.
There is no question of annexation. Even the Arabs all around are unable to cease telling one and all that they are occupied. Since this is Israel’s land, only sovereignty is on the table but they will call it what they want to advance their arguments. I wonder if these are Trump’s words or possibly misspoken by Rubio.
As for the declaration that annexation has passed in the Knesset, please be aware that nothing gets passed that easily in the Knesset with this supreme court ready to strike anything down that might become law. Stop the nonsense!
Of course, it will be twisted and roasted by everybody, especially now that it seems to bother the USA too.
Could it be that Israel has learned something since that infamous visit by VP Biden long ago??
It was interesting to observe the reactions of the Arab members of Knesset and of Hamas. Hamas has absolutely no say in the matter.
By the way, does anybody remember the Oslo Accords that divided up Judea and Samaria into 3 main portions with a few other separate spots like are E.
Area C, by far the largest part, is set aside for Israeli use but that is being illegally built upon by the “Palestinians” and their EU cohorts. Then there is Area B which is assigned to the “Palestinians” und Israeli security control and Area A which, although the smallest region, is fully under PA control. Area C is Israeli territory and can be used as Israel ses fit. It simply requires sovereignty so that the Israeli police can police it.
Lovely wording to this quote!!
I wonder what Qatar would say if Israel were to object to Qatari decisions in their halls of government. Would Israel also denounce their decisions?
The “Palestinian people” have no self-determination because their brothers in their previous homelands have denied them it. Sorry guys!
Although everybody all around Israel loves the Two State Solution, there is no such agreement in place. Although Israel has often been coerced into suggesting that such a solution could in fact take place, it has never happened and not even the Arabs want it. They want the One State Solution where Israel becomes an Arab land and there is no Israel. How often do they have to repeat that until the rest of the world catches on?
An important point to be made here is the perjorative context in which it is claimed that Israel is “annexing” anything, which is utterly false. The extension of sovereignty only recognizes facts already in existence and as established in international law. Trump’s comment demonstrates a complete miscomprehension of what was proposed in the yesterday’s legislation.
Exactly. It belongs to Israel, always has.
I’m not at all pleased with this so-called “peace-deal.”
I must say that it’s become increasingly more difficult to discern when to believe Trump. If Israel formally annexes all of Judea and Samaria, the US will no longer support Israel. This is the statement that allegedly Trump made. Does he really mean it or is he just saying this in order for the enemies of Israel to remain in the Gaza peace deal? He says a lot of things both from the Right and the Left side of his mouth. I would think that he might not be in favour of it at this time as it might jeopardize his latest ‘peace’ deal. But hopefully deep inside his mind, he knows that Israel should be allowed to finally annex Judea and Samaria.
What peace plan? With whom?