Netanyahu hints at partial West Bank annexation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday hints at the possibility of an Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank.

“There’s all sorts of unilateral moves and sorts of directions. Wait and see. And they’re not necessarily in the direction that people think,” he says at conference in Jerusalem, refusing to elaborate.

Last week, Netanyahu first raised the notion of unilateral steps when asked about his plan to prevent Israel from becoming a binational state in case no agreement with the Palestinians could be found. Later, his aides clarified that he was referring to unilateral steps to improve Israel’s position on the ground and that he was not considering any territorial withdrawals.

Addressing the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference, Netanyahu says there are three aspects to peacemaking: political agreements, security and prosperity. Asked by the paper’s diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon whether he envisions any unilateral steps if a peace deal remains elusive, the prime minister replies that Israel is already implementing unilateral steps in the security and economic realms.

“I prefer bilateral; I prefer negotiated moves,” he says. “But in the absence of security and the economy there’s room for it. Politically, I think it’s more complicated [and] not desirable.”

Netanyahu also comments on controversial comments by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who invoked the Palestinians’ frustration when discussing Friday’s terror attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people.

Without mentioning Wallstrom by name, the prime minister says that Israel is not to blame for terrorism, whether it occurs in the Middle East or in Europe.

“We’re not to blame any more than the people of Paris are to blame for the attacks that are leveled against them,” he said. “So obviously we reject that. But now there’s a new twist: it’s not merely that we are to blame for the terror that is directed against us. We are to blame for the terrorism that is directed against them, in Paris. Now that’s a level of absurdity that … is almost comic if it weren’t so tragic.”

— Raphael Ahren