Netanyahu once again vows to annex settlements in Judea and Samaria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Sunday his earlier pledge to annex all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Photo: Haim Zac
Speaking to children in the 4,000-resident town of Elkana in Samaria on their first day at school, Netanyahu said, “There will not be any more uprooting. With God’s help, we will extend Jewish sovereignty to all the ‘settlements,’ as part of the Land of Israel and as part of the State of Israel.”
Netanyahu’s last public statement in support of annexation came five months ago in the days leading up to the April 9 elections. The country is heading into repeat elections on Sept. 17.
“This is our land,” Netanyahu said in his speech, according to Reuters. “We will build another Elkana and another Elkana and another Elkana. We will not uproot anyone here.”
On Friday, Netanyahu said he believes that the Mideast peace plan crafted by U.S. President Donald Trump will be published soon after the elections.
Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to a pupil’s question about the security situation:
“Today we know that most of the terrorism comes from one source, is cultivated from one source, feeds off one source, is launched from one source and is organized from one source – and that is Iran. A new empire has arisen the goal of which is to defeat us. They dispatch proxies. They are building a proxy in Lebanon in the form of Hezbollah and are building another in Gaza in the form of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They are also trying to entrench in Iraq in order to turn it not only into a conduit for weapons to Syria and Hezbollah, they want to turn it into a launch pad for missiles and incursions against us.
They are doing this in Syria of course. We are struggling on all of these fronts and, in effect, we have a very consistent and systematic line – to take action on all of these fronts and, above all, to prevent our main enemy, without which everything would collapse, from entrenching militarily in our region, and preventing it from attaining nuclear weapons which would absolutely change the balance here, not just what is termed the non-conventional, but also the conventional balance. If our enemies will have rockets that also carry atomic bombs aimed at us, their ordinary threat would be 100 times worse.
We are striking at terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The ISA thwarts around 500 terrorist attacks a year; this is almost two per day. We are thwarting it there because we are here. We are not only engaged in hot pursuit, we are constantly striking at the weeds. We are making arrests and from time to time tragedies – such as you have now read about – happen to us. It is impossible to stop them all – but we find them all in the end. In recent years we have found all of the murderers and if we did not, there would be hundreds more successful attacks here.
We are dealing with extremist Islam led by various elements, but in the end, the biggest threat to our existence comes from Iran. Over the long years, we have led a consistent struggle almost alone. I am pleased that President Trump has decided to adopt the unyielding stance and has withdrawn from this bad agreement. Of course, the US supports our efforts in Syria and in the region to confront those who champion our destruction.
And here is the main point – you can negotiate with an enemy who has decided to stop being an enemy. We are always told ‘You make peace with an enemy.’ You make peace with an enemy who has decided to stop being an enemy. But an enemy that continues to fight you, openly declares that he wants to destroy you, an enemy who wants to destroy you – there is only one way to deal with him: Those who rise up to kill you, you kill them first, and you deny them equilibrium-breaking weapons. This is what we are doing. This is a continuing effort. In this effort there are heart-rending losses that devastate families, who like me can attest to this.
Relatively speaking, in the years that we have led the State of Israel, we see that the number of our losses – both civilian and military – is relatively lower, including the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip in which – to my sorrow – a soldier and several civilians have been killed. In the past five years, this is the smallest number since the Six Day War. This is the result of our readiness to engage. I am not happy to engage because I know the price that we pay with the best of our sons, and sometimes our daughters but when it is necessary – we are not deterred.
I reiterate to our enemies, especially Iran – whoever comes to destroy us places himself in similar danger.”
JNS/J-Wire
