After five hundred days of crisis and three elections, the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – approved on Sunday May 17 the government of national unity formed by Benjamin Netanyahu and his ex-rival Benny Gantz, thus putting an end to the longest crisis politics of modern Hebrew state history. After a postponement Thursday, the parliamentarians were invited for a vote of confidence: 73 deputies voted for the government, 12 more than the majority threshold.
According to the agreement between the two men, Mr. Netanyahu will remain prime minister for eighteen months before giving way to Mr. Gantz. The latter, a former army chief of staff, will be Mr. Netanyahu’s defense minister and "Deputy prime minister" – a new position that Mr. Netanyahu will occupy when Benny Gantz will in turn be Prime Minister.
By occupying this position, Benjamin Netanyahu hopes that he will avoid having to resign, under the rules allowing a sitting Prime Minister to remain in office, even accused of an offense. The Israeli leader, now 70 years old, must in fact answer from May 24 accusations of corruption and fraud, which he refutes.
"It's time" to annex parts of the West Bank
The power-sharing agreement also paves the way for the annexation of part of the occupied West Bank. " It's time " to annex sections of the occupied West Bank, said Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday before the Parliament assembled for the vote of confidence:
"Here is the truth: these territories are where the Jewish people were born and developed. It is time to apply Israeli law and write a glorious new chapter in the history of Zionism. "
The power-sharing agreement between MM. Netanyahu and Gantz thus anticipate the announcement, from 1er July, of a strategy to implement the US project to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rejected by the Palestinians, this plan provides in particular for the annexation by Israel of the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by the Hebrew State.
Over the past decade, the population in Israeli settlements has jumped 50% to more than 450,000, often living in conflict with more than 2.7 million Palestinians.
Annexation "will not take us away from peace"
"The truth, and everyone knows, is that the hundreds of thousands of residents of Judea and Samaria (term used by the Israeli authorities to speak of the West Bank) will always stay at home, regardless of the peace agreement ultimately found ”, affirmed Mr. Netanyahu before the parliamentarians. Annexation "Will not take us away from peace, it will bring us closer", he added.
Gantz spoke on the pandemic related to the new coronavirus and the need for the Israelis to be united, but said nothing about the annexation.
The proposed annexation was discussed on Wednesday by US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo, on a short visit to Jerusalem where he met with Messrs. Gantz and Netanyahu. For their part, the Palestinians and neighboring Jordan have already warned of the consequences of such a project. Most countries in the European Union also want to convince Israel to give it up to avoid having to punish that country.
