UN-FUCKING-REAL - IMPERIALIST KIKES WANT JORDAN VALLEY
Current political situation provides a solid majority for annexing, and even if Netanyahu only initiates such a move, it will be his biggest achievement
> When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his intention to annex the Jordan Valley a week before the election last September, it was perceived as a last-minute ploy to divert attention from his impending corruption indictments and a temptation for religious-Zionist voters to defect from the right-wing alliance Yamina to Likud.
> The prime minister presented a map of land to be annexed, but the plan sparked little public debate at home or reactions abroad, and was swallowed up by the rest of the election campaign.
> That campaign came and went, followed directly by another, and Netanyahu is sticking to his message: U.S. President Donald Trump’s support gives Israel a rare opportunity to annex the Jordan Valley, so voters should keep in power the prime minister close to the White House and the Republicans. The poll numbers haven’t been affected, and Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc still lacks the majority to save the prime minister from a trial. Still, Netanyahu has planted the idea in the public consciousness.
> The World Holocaust Forum being held in Jerusalem this week offers an opportunity to put annexation back in the headlines, safe in the knowledge that the many world leaders coming to honor the memory of the 6 million who perished in the Holocaust won’t spoil the event by criticizing Israel’s appetite for land. Netanyahu has won an enthusiastic supporter for the idea in his ostensible political rival, Benny Gantz, who staged photo ops in the Jordan Valley with top people in his Kahol Lavan party and promised to support an annexation “with international consent.”
> On Friday, the editor of the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon, Hagai Segal, quoted Gantz as saying he wants Jordanian and European consent for an annexation, not just American. Gantz knows that King Abdullah and the EU won’t recognize the extension of Israeli law into the Jordan Valley, but he won’t be able to hide behind them forever. This thin flak jacket is tattered.
> It seems Israel is marching toward annexation of the Jordan Valley, a largely desolate area that few Israelis visit but one considered strategically important. The timing is transparent: A year Trump is running for reelection and is thus keen to entertain requests from Jerusalem. Netanyahu isn’t doing anything new here.
> Israel has always sought to exploit such situations to obtain diplomatic gains from Washington. U.S. President Harry Truman recognized the Jewish state minutes after it was declared in 1948, contrary to the wishes of his secretary of state and top administration officials, because he was running in an election from a weak position and needed the support of Jewish voters and donors.
> On the current political map in Israel there’s a solid majority for annexing the Jordan Valley that includes the entire right-wing bloc, Avigdor Lieberman and now Kahol Lavan. It’s hard to recall that just a few years ago, Netanyahu opposed any annexation in the West Bank and insisted on maintaining the status quo, arguing that unilateral moves would harm Israel. But the settlers didn’t relent. They diverted a majority in Likud to their side and bid their time until Netanyahu was weak and needed them.
> Now Gantz has also shifted from the “center-left” to the annexationist right. If a unity government is formed after the election, annexation of the Jordan Valley will be at the top of its agenda and will pass even if the left-leaning Knesset members in Kahol Lavan receive the freedom to vote as they please.
> The left is also split. After all, the idea of annexing the Jordan Valley was first broached by Labor’s Yigal Allon in the famous plan for partitioning the West Bank that he proposed in the early stages of the Israeli occupation. Jordan Valley settlements were founded by Labor governments until the political upset of 1977 that brought Likud to power. Labor-Gesher chief Amir Peretz’s statement disavowing support for Gantz on annexation was pretty mild and made sure to mention the “vital security arrangements” for Israel.
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