Israel's hawkish defense minister said on Wednesday that US. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan created a window for applying Israeli sovereignty on nearly a third of the occupied West Bank.
Naftali Bennett said he had already formed a team to get the process going.
"Last night history knocked on the door of our home and gave us a one-time opportunity to apply Israeli law on all settlements in Samaria, Judea, the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea," Bennett said, using the Hebrew names for areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Bennett's far-right faction is a partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. He has long advocated annexing much of the West Bank and praised US President Donald Trump's peace proposal for agreeing to let Israel maintain control of its West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu said Tuesday he would bring a proposal for applying Israeli jurisdiction to the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea and West Bank settlements for cabinet approval at its next session, probably on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin told Israel Radio that a cabinet vote on annexing territories on Sunday was not technically feasible because of various preparations, including “bringing the proposal before the attorney general and letting him consider the matter.”
Bennett said Israel had effectively been given the green light to start applying its laws "on all the territory President Trump is willing." He said that accounts for about 30% of the West Bank.
Bennett said he had given orders to form a special team within Israel's security establishment to "implement the application of Israeli law and sovereignty on all Jewish settlements" in the West Bank.
Trump's plan also proposed creating a Palestinian state.
This has always been anathema to some of Netanyahu's right-wing allies, and Bennett reiterated his opposition.
"The Israeli government will not recognize a Palestinian state," he said.
Trump’s plan presented a vision that matched Netanyahu’s hard-line, nationalist views while falling far short of Palestinian ambitions.
The plan envisions a disjointed Palestinian state that turns over key parts of the West Bank to Israel. It sides with Israel on key contentious issues that have bedeviled past peace efforts, including borders and the status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements, and attaches nearly impossible conditions for granting the Palestinians their hoped-for state.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the plan as “nonsense” and vowed to resist it.
