Netanyahu Postpones Cabinet Session, Negotiates with US Annexing Part of West Bank

  • 2/3/2020
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a predicament with his allies from the right-wing parties, including some ministers and deputies from the Likud party, after Trump’s administration revealed that he can’t annex lands from the West Bank before the March 2 elections. Netanyahu canceled the cabinet’s regular session that was set to tackle the annexation of the Jordan Valley, northern sections of the Dead Sea and the Israeli settlements as the ‘Deal of the Century’ stipulates. Although he informed his allies of his intention to postpone the session for two days only until he negotiates with the White House, he surprised them with his visit to Uganda on Monday. Netanyahu’s office confirmed Sunday that he would travel to Uganda the next day for a one-day visit to meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and several African leaders and agree with them on relocating their embassies to Jerusalem. Political sources in Tel Aviv quoted on Sunday people close to the Evangelical Community in Uganda as saying that the transfer of the Ugandan embassy to Jerusalem comes after 3 years of talks between Israel and Uganda. Upon his return, Netanyahu will attend the cabinet’s meeting on Tuesday. However, an employee at the Protocol Department said that this is unlikely since his program is overloaded. A reliable source said that he is negotiating with the Americans to announce the settlements’ annexation or endorsing the deal in all its terms. Further, Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his speech against the Deal of the Century at the Arab League on Saturday. Netanyahu tweeted that “Apparently [Abbas] hasn’t heard of the tribes of Israel.” He went on to call immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union “our brothers and sisters, the flesh of our flesh, thoroughly Jewish, who dreamed in exile for generations of the return to Zion and have fulfilled that dream.” Gantz said in a statement that Abbas “once again does not miss an opportunity for rejectionism.” “The time has come to start working for future generations and for peace rather than remaining stuck in the past and preventing the entire region from [achieving] a future of hope,” Gantz added.

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