Desparate Bibi threatens to annex huge portion of West Bank

[Takket]

Last edited Tue Sep 10, 2019, 07:28 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/world/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-west-bank.html

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Tuesday that he would move swiftly to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank if voters returned him to power in the election next week, a change that he said was possible only because of his influence with the White House.

His plan to annex territory along the Jordan River would give the nation “secure, permanent borders” to the east for the first time in its history, he said.

But it would also reduce any future Palestinian state to an enclave encircled by Israel. And Mr. Netanyahu’s rivals on the left and right largely greeted the announcement, made in the heat of a campaign in which he is battling for survival, as a transparent political ploy.

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. Most of the world considers it occupied territory and Israeli settlements or annexations there to be illegal.

[Bettie]

1. And yet, we're not allowed to

criticize Mr. Netanyahu or his government.