2025, “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria“: The climate of satisfaction in the ranks of the far-right Israeli government with the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the USA did not take long to be seen, and today with statements by the ministers of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu they showed their intentions to seek more benefits under the new Republican administration.
Trump’s re-election provides Israel with a “significant opportunity” to “exercise Israeli sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said today, referring to the occupied West Bank by their Jewish names.
For his part, far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed the hope that Israel will extend its sovereignty over the occupied West Bank by 2025, while Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the establishment of a Palestinian state is not “today” a “realistic” plan
Smotrich hailed today at a press conference Trump’s victory over Joe Biden, whose administration, as the Israeli minister complained, “unfortunately chose to interfere with Israeli democracy and personally not to cooperate with me.”
The two requests
Trump’s first presidential term (2017-2021) has been positive for Israel, the Israeli finance minister said, referring to the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights and the White House’s decision to declare that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are in accordance with international law.
“We were one step away from implementing settlement rule in Judea and Samaria, and now is the time to do it,” Smotrich said, calling 2025 “the year of rule in Judea and Samaria.”
The only way to remove the “danger” of a Palestinian state “is to implement Israeli sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the far-right minister continued, calling such a course of action the appropriate response to Hamas, Hezbollah and the rest. of the terrorist axis supported by Iran.
A little earlier, during his first press conference since taking office, Gideon Saar, noting that Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, after the Israeli withdrawal, and “we don’t want that to happen in Judea and Samaria.” called it “important” to remind that, contrary to the UN, Israel considers that “Judea and Samaria are not occupied, but disputed territories’.
Confidence for Trump
Revealing that he had instructed the Defense Ministry’s Settlement Directorate and the Civil Administration to begin preparing the groundwork for the implementation of sovereignty, Smotrich stressed that “while Israel’s enemies saw October 7, 2023 (the day of the Hamas attack) in Israel) as “the first step in the destruction of Israel … the neo-Nazis must pay a price in the land that will be taken from them once and for all in both the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.”
Smotrich has an oversight role in the defense ministry for the settlers, as part of the coalition government deal under Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Although there will be criticism, the Abraham Accords prove that when Israel stands up for what is right “in the end it gets support and appreciation from the US and neighboring Arab countries,” the finance minister continued. “I have no doubt that President Trump, who has shown courage and determination and commitment to his decisions in his first term, will support the State of Israel in this move,” he added.
The Abraham Accords, promoted by Donald Trump during his first term, allowed for the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries such as Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
SOURCE: With information from Times of Israel
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