Bibi Tells Settlement Leaders that Peace Plan is “Historic Opportunity” in Charged Meeting

By: Hezki Baruch

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with settlement leaders from the Yesha Council – the umbrella group which represents Israelis living in Judea and Samaria – Tuesday afternoon, one month before the government is expected to take up Netanyahu’s plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

The meeting included, aside from Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud), Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan, Binyamin Regional Council chief Yisrael Gantz, Jordan Valley Regional Council chief David Elhayani, Gush Etzion Regional Council chief Shlomo Ne’eman, and Mount Hebron Regional Council chief Yochai Damri.

During the gathering, Netanyahu told settlement leaders that Israel has a “historic opportunity to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria,” while emphasizing his obligation under the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan to conduct final status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, should the PA drop its opposition to talks.

Regarding the details of the soon-to-be presented sovereignty plan, Netanyahu said that talks were continuing with the Trump administration, and that the final perimeters of the plan had yet to be determined.

Netanyahu agreed to keep in contact with settlement leaders regarding the sovereignty plan.

Both Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Levin called on the Yesha Council to endorse the sovereignty plan, calling it a “historic process” for applying sovereignty.

Sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told Arutz Sheva Tuesday afternoon that the meeting was held in a positive atmosphere, but added that the discussion was stormy, and ‘charged’. Settlement leaders called on Netanyahu not to commit to backing Palestinian statehood, and pushed him to alter the sovereignty map so as to avoid Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria from becoming isolated enclaves.

In the conceptual maps presented by the Trump administration in its peace plan, all but 15 Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria would be incorporated into a single contiguous bloc of territory under Israeli sovereignty.

The 15 remaining towns would also be placed under Israeli sovereignty, but without contiguous connection to the rest of Israel. In addition, these isolated enclaves would be barred from expanding for four years.

(INN)