Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday to annex key parts of the occupied West Bank within "weeks" if re-elected, as he sought to sway voters a day before the country's third election in a year.
In an interview with Israeli public radio, he said annexation of the strategically important Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank was his top priority among "four major immediate missions." "That will happen within weeks, two months at the most, I hope," he said in the interview aired 24 hours before polls were scheduled to open.
Despite the fact that Netanyahu has lost his previous popularity among Israelis, he plays the Palestinian card each time. He promised to annex the West Bank, expand illegal Israeli settlements and take harsher measures against the threats that he claims are coming from the Palestinians. Although failing two times in the last six months in elections to reach a clear victory, Netanyahu seemed reluctant to lose his position.
The U.S. President Donald Trump's widely-criticized unilateral Middle East peace plan, unveiled in late January, gave the Jewish state a green light to annex the Jordan Valley and proposed a committee to set out the exact borders of the territory in question. "The joint U.S.-Israeli mapping committee started work a week ago," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu listed his other priorities as signing a "historic" defense treaty with the U.S., Israel's key ally, and "eradicating the Iranian threat," without elaborating. He has repeatedly pledged to stop the Islamic republic from developing a nuclear weapon and has not ruled out the use of force. Netanyahu said that his fourth "immediate" goal if re-elected, despite facing trial on multiple corruption charges, would be major economic reform to bring down Israel's high cost of living.
In December, Netanyahu had stated that Israel has the “full right” to annex the Jordan Valley if it chose to. The Palestinians seek all the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their hoped-for state. The Jordan Valley comprises 25% of the West Bank and is seen as the territory’s breadbasket and one of the few remaining open areas that could be developed by the Palestinians.
Netanyahu has been clinging to power and refusing to leave the scene to others. In the elections, which were held in April, Netanyahu failed to win the majority in parliament but did not offer any opportunity to the opposition to form a coalition. After the failure of forming a government, the country had to go into another election in September. Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, once again failed to secure the majority in the parliament.
