Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan, who attended the Trump inauguration in Washington last month and met with administration officials, tells the pro-settlement B’Sheva Jerusalem Conference the US president is “not the messiah.”
Ahead of Netanyahu’s Washington visit, Dagan says the US administration will follow the prime minister’s lead on Israeli-Palestinian peace and the settlements.
From left, Yossi Dagan, Mark Zell and Abe Katsman celebrating the opening of the Republicans Overseas Israel office in the West Bank town of Karnei Shomron, Sept. 5, 2016. (Andrew Tobin)
“We must not think, it’s wrong to think, that they will make decisions for us,” says Dagan. “Trump will never make a decision to annex Ma’ale Adumim. Trump will never make a decision on building in Judea and Samaria. Trump will always be more left-wing than us.”
“I say this as someone who loves the prime minister, who respects him and thinks he’s a good leader for the State of Israel,” says Dagan. The GOP removed the two-state solution from its platform, and “Netanyahu put it back on the table,” he says. “This is illogical, it cannot be… it’s dangerous.”
The Trump administration doesn’t distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements “and we’re talking about blocs,” he says.
“Therefore I am very troubled by these statements,” he says.
“The ball is not in Washington[‘s court]; the ball is in Jerusalem,” the settler leader adds.
— Marissa Newman
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