IDF Radio: US tells Israel that annexation will also define final borders

Israeli officials say Americans are pushing idea that application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria will be final borders between Israel and future State of Palestine.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli government officials say that under the Trump administration peace proposal any annexation by Israel of settlement blocks will mark the final eastern border of Israel and no more annexation will be recognized, Israel Army Radio reported Wednesday.

The report cited unnamed members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government who said the Trump administration wants the joint U.S.-Israeli team that is mapping the areas where Israel will apply sovereignty to define those boundaries as the new borders of the State of Israel.

According to the sources, once the settlement blocs are annexed, the new lines will become Israel’s eastern border and Israel will agree to give up demands to apply sovereignty over any other areas in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.

No exact lines have been revealed yet by the mapping team, but Israel is expected to annex about 30 percent of the land including the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea coastline it acquired in the 1967 Six Day War and all Israeli settlements located beyond the 1948 armistice line.

With many of those settlements on isolated hills, it is not known how the new border will be drawn to maintain contiguous areas for either side.

According to statements from American officials, the Trump administration will recognize Israel’s sovereignty in those areas and Israel will agree not to expand any existing settlements or establish new communities for at least four years while the Americans try to entice the Palestinians back to the negotiating table to restart peace talks.

The final border demand is one of the measures the Americans are pushing, including the acceptance of a possible future Palestinian state, which the Israelis do not like, the official said.

The Palestinians have rejected any Israeli annexation move and last week announced they had cut off all cooperation, saying that Israel had broached all signed agreements and as a result they were now voided.

Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan opposes the Trump plan because it calls for a Palestinian state. He told Israel’s Army Radio that the American demand “was further proof” that the U.S. is “slowly making its demands harsher and in so doing is harming the basic interests of the State of Israel,” and he called on Netanyahu to immediately annex Judea and Samaria.

“The ball is always in Jerusalem’s court,” said Dagan. “With all due respect to the U.S. and its friendship [with Israel], Israel is a sovereign state, not a banana republic of the U.S. The excessive demands of the U.S. and its interference in setting Israel’s borders are beyond what is acceptable between friends, even good friends.”

AnnexationJudea and Samaria