Moshe Ya’alon: Israel should stop talking about annexation
Ya’alon explained that Trump didn’t even allow Israel to move forward on sovereignty in January, when he unveiled his peace plan in Washington and published a map of what could be annexed.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFFormer Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 14, 2016(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel should stop talking about plans to annex portions of the West Bank, which only needlessly inflame the region, MK Moshe Ya’alon (Yesh Atid-Telem) said Tuesday during a virtual Calcalist conference. “We have to be quiet and not place Israeli politics into the mix,” he said.The only person who can determine whether or not there will be sovereignty is US President Donald Trump, said Ya’alon, who is a former defense minister and former IDF chief of staff.“Only he [Trump] can decide,” Ya’alon said, adding that the US president “understands that there is a problem.”Ya’alon explained that Trump didn’t even allow Israel to move forward on sovereignty in January, when he unveiled his peace plan in Washington and published a map of what could be annexed.At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the impression that he could bring the matter to the Knesset that next Sunday, but even then, Trump was not interested in having that happen, Ya’alon said.Those initial celebrations in Washington were premature, one has to wait to see what is helpful to Trump politically, Ya’alon said.Ya’alon said he believed in many aspects of the Trump plan, including that the Jordan Valley and West Bank settlements should be under Israeli sovereignty, and that Jerusalem should be united.The Trump plan “is good for Israel. But is it relevant now?” he asked. At this moment, “it is only relevant to Netanyahu politically, but it doesn’t have to come to fruition now,” Ya’alon said.It is convenient for Netanyahu, however, to generate debate about a plan that he never plans to implement, because it distracts from his legal woes and the COVID-19 pandemic, Ya’alon said.
Ya’alon said he had meet with US officials prior to the January unveiling of the plan and he urged them not to move forward.“I understood that [the plan] could only help Netanyahu,” he said.Israel had been moving toward improved relations with its moderate Arab neighbors and with the two countries with which it had signed a peace treaties, Jordan and Egypt.“There is no Israeli-Arab conflict," he said, noting that the Arab nations have long ago tired of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Egypt’s most secure border is with Israel. When one speaks of ISIS, “we are on the same side.”But it is more than that, oil prices are dropping and it is no longer considered to be a political weapons.In addition, they desire technology which Israel has with regard to water and agriculture.This has allowed for under the table relations with the Arab world, without any kind of large conference or peace deal baed on joint interests, he said.Talk of applying sovereignty, “harmed this paradigm,” he said.
