OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
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JUNE 18, 2020
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xation.
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hursday afternoons are often slow days for news in Israel. With most government offices closing early and the Knesset not in session, there is frequently little of importance for the media to dwell upon, barring a major security incident. Yet as the sunny Thursday in early September progressed, it became clear that something was brewing. It began with a laconic statement announcing that Prime Minister Netanyahu would be giving a prime-time address to the nation later that day. While his aides refused to provide further information, rumors swirled that the speech would be about something other than the country’s second round of elections scheduled to take place the following week. “At 6 PM tonight, get ready for the ‘BOOM,’” tweeted Netanyahu’s young and aggressive spokesperson Yonatan Urich. 6 p.m. came and went, yet Netanyahu’s speech didn’t materialize. It was at 8 p.m., fully two hours later, that Netanyahu appeared before the public and delivered a bombshell:
Should he win the mandate from the people to remain as the country’s highest elected official, he would annex the Jordan Valley immediately and make it part of Israel proper. Flanked by a giant easel featuring a map of the Jordan Valley, Netanyahu said that such a move would happen “immediately” in coordination with the United States. “There is one place where we can apply Israeli sovereignty immediately after the elections,” Netanyahu said. “If I receive from you, citizens of Israel, a clear mandate to do so…today I announce my intention to apply, with the formation of the next government, Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea.” With his announcement, Netanyahu became Israel’s first-ever sitting prime minister to attempt to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. While many politicos had vowed to go through with such a move, they quickly jettisoned their campaign promises after taking office in the face of withering international pressure. Netanyahu’s announcement failed
to help his election prospects, and his Likud party dropped by three seats a week later. But with the country in the midst of the worst political deadlock since its founding, no party could muster up the necessary majority to form a government, sending Israel to an unprecedented third round of elections in under a year. Yet Netanyahu now has another chance to go through with his long-awaited plan, after President Trump unveiled the “Deal of the Century” this past January. As part of the plan, Israel would be allowed to annex up to 30% of the West Bank as soon as July. Outside of the White House, right-wing Israeli journalists ecstatically accepted the news. After more than half a century of endless struggle to prevent parts of their biblical heartland from being given away, it seemed like their dream was finally becoming a reality. Many things have changed since that celebratory evening in Washington, D.C. The coronavirus reached America’s shores, devastating the United States, while Israel finally got its first government in over a year. Yet
one thing remained constant: On July 1, Netanyahu intends to finally apply Israeli law on the Jordan Valley and some parts of Judea and Samaria, despite threats of a diplomatic tsunami, a violent Palestinian Intifada, and the rupture of Israel’s covert relations with Arab countries.
“J
udea and Samaria” is the term used to refer to territory Israeli captured from Jordan during the Six Day War in 1967. Prior to the war, four Arab armies massed on Israel’s borders. With the IDF outnumbered by a margin of 10 to 1, many feared that the 19-year-old Zionist project was over; a common joke spoke of the final Israeli departing the country to “turn out the lights.” Yet, rather than be destroyed by the rampaging Arab militaries, the IDF trounced its enemies in under six days, capturing the Sinai Desert and Gaza from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. The ho-
