Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank have provoked a predictable reaction of outrage in the Islamic world and criticism from left-democratic circles in Europe, the United States and even Israel itself. Most interestingly, these plans risk permanently undermining the broad right-wing, religious-nationalist coalition that Netanyahu has relied on for years.
We have previously written about the divisions within this coalition between its religious wing, with which Netanyahu has flirted, and the radically secular «Russian-Jewish» Our Home Israel party led by Avigdor Lieberman. Now, however, even the religious core of this coalition has fractured after former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of one of the main national-religious parties, «Yamina,» declared that its preservation was impossible, directly linked to Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank.
Bennett has become the loudest, but not the only, voice of the so-called settler movement, which is dissatisfied with the way Netanyahu intends to annex the West Bank. The latter wants support from the White House, whose owner is willing to provide it under certain conditions.
While mainly secular or moderately religious settlers living near the so-called Green Line are pinning their hopes on Netanyahu’s annexation because it recognizes their settlements as part of Israel, those living beyond the Green Line, as well as radical religious Zionists, see Netanyahu’s annexation project as a betrayal. Not only will their settlements remain outside of Israel, but they will become even more isolated from Israel as a result of the logistical changes that will follow annexation.
Moreover, radical religious Zionists fear that such a limited annexation, like the entire Donald Trump plan (the so-called deal of the century), will put an end to further Jewish colonization of Palestine.
One of the spokesmen for the settler movement, Bezalel Smotrich, believes that Netanyahu, who agreed to recognize an independent Palestine under the «Deal of the Century,» has embarked on a destructive path for Jewish colonization of Palestine. «It’s either one or the other. Either the future belongs to the settlements or to the Palestinian state, but not both,» says Smotrich.
The comedy of the situation, however, is that the Palestinians themselves do not agree with this «Palestinian state» that radical Zionists accuse Netanyahu of accepting. This theoretically gives him the freedom to create new settlements and make further annexations.
The problem, however, is that those he could rely on for this policy may not want to have anything to do with him at that point. In order to form a coalition government, Netanyahu had to seek the support of moderate opposition forces, sacrificing Jewish radicals in the process. But the decisions on the annexation of the West Bank that this government is presenting as a compromise, as a condition for its support from Washington, are categorically unacceptable to the two polarized camps: staunch opponents of this annexation and supporters who want a more decisive implementation without any concessions or compromises.
Therefore, by implementing such an annexation now, Netanyahu may be signing his own death sentence, not only for the entire peace process (which he has consistently pursued for years), but also, ironically, making himself an enemy not only of the peace party, but also of the war party.
(Enclosed photo: Benjamin Netanyahu with Naftali Bennett)