Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked: 'Annexing all of West Bank will be the end of Israel'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) warned against the possible annexation of the entire West Bank in an interview to Israeli radio station 101.5FM on Thursday, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Donald Trump, in which the latter requested that Israel slow down settlement construction in the near future for the benefit of the peace process.Shaked referred to opposition leader Issac Herzog's most recent statement against the possible annexation of the West Bank, saying that "I agree with Herzog that the annexation of all of the Judea and Samaria lands is something that will bring about the end of the Jewish state and it's certainly not something anyone is proposing."However, Shaked was quick to note that while "annexing all of Judea and Samaria isn't a right thing," she did think that "we definitely need to annex Area C, where there are 450,000 Jews and 90,000 Arabs. The state can definitely deal with granting citizenship to an additional 90,000 Arabs and Areas A and B should be part of a regional confederation."Shaked also pointed out that the decision regarding West Bank territories was one Israel should not be making alone and was quoted as saying that "Israel should not carry the weight of the solution on its shoulders alone."Lastly, the minister spoke about prime minister Netanyahu's newly distant approach towards the two-state solution, one he had previously touted in his famous 2009 Bar-Ilan speech. "Netanyahu is influenced by his coalition partners. When he was partners with the labor party and Ehud Barak he spoke that way. Today he speaks differently and I can only be glad that he is."
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