Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he is "confident" Israel will apply its sovereignty over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley in "a few months from now."
“For decades I have been fighting those who sought to deny the millennial connection of the Jewish people to our homeland. I’m proud to say that the decades-long struggle has borne fruit. Three months ago, the Trump peace plan recognized Israel’s rights in all of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. And President Trump pledged to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Jewish communities there and in the Jordan Valley,” Netanyahu was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying in a recorded speech broadcast on a Christian Evangelical event marking the 100th anniversary of the San Remo conference.
“A couple of months from now, I’m confident that that pledge will be honored. That we will be able to celebrate another historic moment in the history of Zionism. A century after San Remo, the promise of Zionism is being realized,” Netanyahu said.
The San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council held in April 1920. In the San Remo Resolution, the superpowers recognize the right of the Jewish people to renew their national home in Israel following the Balfour Declaration of 1927.
The resolution was adopted by the United Nations upon its establishment in 1945 and is still valid according to international law.
According to the government deal between the Likud and Blue & White, Netanyahu will be able to bring the agreement reached with the Trump administration over the application of Israeli sovereignty in West Bank and Jordan Valley territories for the approval of the Security Cabinet and Knesset fro July 1.
In addition, “the law will be passed as quickly as possible… and will not be disrupted or delayed by the chairmen of either the House or the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees.”
Gantz managed to add a clause into the deal stating that the prime minister and the deputy prime minister must act in concert with the United States, including on the issue of drawing new roadmaps, and while consulting the international opinion on the issue. All this while striving to safeguard the security and strategic interests of the State of Israel, including the need to maintain regional stability, preserve peace agreements, and strive for future peace agreements.
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Blue & White Chairman Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signing coalition deal
With this clause, Gantz wished to ensure that Netanyahu will not be able to take any far-reaching steps that may put a strain on Israel's relations with Jordan, potentially leading to a full diplomatic crisis and the abolition of the peace agreement between the two countries.
Netanyahu's efforts to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and settlements in the West Bank even before the elections failed because of the White House's opposition to annexation before a joint committee would come to an agreement on the roadmaps to ensure Israel would not appropriate any of the future Palestinian state's territories.
The joint committee has already begun mapping work but was forced to stop due to the coronavirus outbreak.