Negotiations Over, Some Call for Annexation

With Middle East peace talks suspended indefinitely, a growing number of Israeli politicians are raising the call for annexation of parts of Yehudah and Shomron.

“I am recommending that preparations begin to annex Area C lands, those places in which, in any event, a Jewish population lives,” Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, who is also a member of the security cabinet, told Army Radio this week.

Erdan is close to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and is seen as a rising star in the ruling Likud Party. The vast majority of Likud lawmakers have never endorsed the two-state solution, and are supportive of an ongoing, strong Jewish presence in Yehudah and Shomron.

“We can begin to prepare to annex if we don’t have a Palestinian partner and if the situation does not appear to change,” Erdan said, suggesting that such a move would cover some four percent of Yehudah and Shomron.

“I think an era has ended and a new era has begun,” said Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, which has always opposed negotiations with the Palestinians.

Bennett said Palestinians should be given “autonomy on steroids” in areas where they already have some control, while the remaining 62 percent of Yehudah and Shomron should be gradually annexed to Israel.

“I know this is not as [attractive] as the perfect two-state solution, but this is realistic,” he said.

However, political analysts doubted whether Netanyahu would want to head down the path of annexation, knowing that it could turn him into a pariah on the world stage.

“I don’t see him annexing territory, because that is against international law. If you want to take unilateral steps, you have to do things in a wiser fashion,” said Uri Dromi, who was a spokesman for former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

“We should say that the big settlements will stay and we will keep on building in them, and the little ones will go. But don’t annex anything, keep the door open for the Palestinians to come to the table and work out a land swap,” Dromi said.

A senior official from Yesh Atid said that if the talks are officially declared dead, his party might push for a unilateral demarcation of a Palestinian state enabling Israel to keep the major Jewish communities.

This article appeared in print on page 19 of the April 30th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.