Netanyahu offers to suspend annexation plans in exchange for peace with Riyadh: report
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu would suspend plans to annex parts of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank in exchange for the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, according to a report over the weekend.
U.S. President Donald Trump, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyani sign the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House, Sept. 15, 2020. Credit: Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour
Talks are underway between Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia to this end, Yediot Aharonot reported.
Netanyahu said he hopes to welcome Saudi Arabia into the circle of countries that have joined the Abraham Accords.
“I hope to bring about a full, formal peace as we’ve done with the other Gulf states like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates,” he said during an interview with Jewish Insider on Dec. 23.
“This is a very important goal, because if we have peace with Saudi Arabia, we are effectively going to bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he added.
Netanyahu noted that the Saudis have already taken steps showing that they are amenable to full normalization.
“The Saudi government’s decision to open up Saudi airspace to Israel occurred before the Abraham Accords, that gives you a pretty good clue that they didn’t look askance at the Abraham Accords. This was done in 2018, the Abraham Accords were done in 2020,” he said.
The Accords put paid to the idea that peace with the Palestinians must come first before a wider regional peace with Arab states would be possible, Netanyahu continued.
Israel’s “rising economic, technological, military and diplomatic power” made it possible to break out of the “Palestinian straitjacket,” leading Arab countries to view Israel as a potential ally and partner rather than as an enemy, he said.
JNS
Not unilaterally annexing any part of Judea and Samaria to secure a peace treaty with Saudi Arabia makes sense when one understands that Israel is actually going to receive sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria under the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published on 8 June 2022 – probably at least the 30% proposed in Trump’s 2020 Plan.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution has regrettably been buried by the international media and the United Nations in the six months since its publication – but it seems this will soon be changed as these welcome US-brokered talks proceed.
David, do you not think that the term “annexation” in the context of Judea and Samaria is an incorrect term?
Given that those regions of The Land of Israel are legally an integral part of what was the Mandate of 1922, the internationally recognised precursor to The State of Israel, would not the term, ” application of Israeli law to [all or part of] Judea and Samaria” be correct?
I don’t think that this is splitting hairs, since “annexation” usually conveys the meaning of illegal appropriation.
“Annexation” as used in the headline means the “extension of sovereignty” to land which presently has no sovereign ruler.
Using the term “ application of Israeli law to” connotes Israeli law being applied in a particular area without it necessarily forming part of Israel’s sovereign territory