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Friday, 17 July 2020_Israel’s prime minister-in-waiting and ruling coalition partner Benny Gantz reportedly wants a plan by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley shelved.
Netanyahu had set July 1 as the date for the start of cabinet discussions on the annexation plan. But those discussions did not begin, amid openly expressed differences between Netanyahu and key members of his cabinet.
Netanyahu has been driven ahead by President Donald Trump of the United States, who unveiled a plan for the Middle East in January that effectively sidelines the Palestinians.
Last month, Gantz, who heads the Blue and White party and is serving currently as the Israeli minister of military affairs, suggested that the annexation plan should be postponed while Israel is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.
Two Israeli cabinet ministers said on Friday that Gantz called for the shelving of the annexation plan and focusing instead on improving conditions for settlers, Reuters reported.
Netanyahu and his former election rival Gantz struck a deal in April to form a joint cabinet, averting what would have been a fourth consecutive Israeli election due to failed attempts to form a coalition in just over a year.
Under the three-year coalition pact, Netanyahu will be prime minister for 18 months and Gantz will replace him afterwards.
Alon Schuster, Israel’s agriculture minister and a member of Gantz’s party, said on Friday that he was working to achieve “cultivation and not annexation, now” for West Bank farmers.
“We need to bring water to the Jordan Valley — for both the Israelis and the Palestinians who live there, by the way — and to improve electricity,” Schuster told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM, according to Reuters.
Another minister from Blue and White said this was also Gantz’ approach, and that the party chief believed that working on West Bank infrastructure shared by settlers and Palestinians would match Trump’s plan.
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