A meeting of Likud Knesset members, local leaders and activists voiced its support on Monday for an initiative by MK and World Likud leader Danny Danon to call on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty to Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). The Knesset members and local leaders said they would tighten their cooperation to pass bills for sovereignty and the cancellation of agreements with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in light of the PA's intent to unilaterally declare itself a sovereign state in September, breaking its agreements with Israel.
The meeting was timed ahead of the start of the Knesset's summer session and Netanyahu's trip to the United States, where he is scheduled to meet on Friday with President Barack Obama. Danon also called on the prime minister to use his address to a joint session of Congress to call for the release of Jonathan Pollard from his life sentence on a conviction for passing classified information from the U.S. to Israel.