Netanyahu asks Israel for mandate to annex Jordan valley, all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria

Netanyahu says he intends to immediately annex Jordan Valley if he is re-elected and to eventually extend sovereignty over Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to immediately extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area should he be re-elected to a fifth consecutive term as Israel’s leader.

In a press conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the prime minister said, “I believe that democracy obliges that I present to you before the elections and not afterwards what I intend to do if you choose me… I want to request from you a clear mandate to extend Israeli sovereignty on all the settlements.”

Netanyahu said he would wait, out of respect for President Donald Trump, to annex the areas of Judea and Samaria in question until after the president presents his peace plan. The plan, Netanyahu said, will be presented “immediately after the elections, even a few days after the elections. It’s really just around the corner.”

“It puts a great challenge before us, but also a great opportunity. It’s a historic opportunity – a one-time window of opportunity to extend Israel sovereignty over our settlements in Judea and Samaria and also other areas of importance to our security, our history and our future,” he said.

Netanyahu says he plans to extend sovereignty in coordination with the U.S. to as great a degree as possible.

But the prime minister also said, “There’s one place in which it’s possible to extend Israeli sovereignty immediately after the elections if I receive from you, the citizens of Israel, a clear mandate to do it… Today, I reveal my intention to annex the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea.”

He said it would only be a “first step” in his annexation plans, “If I receive your trust.”

Explaining the importance of annexing the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu said it was the eastern border of Israel. Together with the Golan Heights, “It is the essential security belt in the Middle East.”

“It’s our eastern defensive wall. A defensive wall that ensures that we’ll never return to be a state with a width of several kilometers.”

In a pitch for his leadership, Netanyahu said that the question remains open as to who will carry out the negotiations with Trump: “Who will enlist Trump to our side? Who will be the next prime minister of Israel? I or Gantz-Lapid?”

Netanyahu said Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, leaders of the Blue and White party, Likud’s main rival, have already promised to uproot 80,000 Jews from Judea and Samaria. “I have promised to uproot not one,” he said.