Senior Likud officials claim that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the White House to give a green light to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley prior to Israel's March elections and the publication of US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century," Kan Reshet Bet reported.
According to the Wednesday report, the senior officials said Netanyahu did not announce Likud's election campaign Tuesday night because he is waiting until next week to bring the issue of sovereignty for a Knesset vote.
The Prime Minister's office responded with, "no comment."
On Wednesday morning, Yamina leader MK Ayelet Shaked told Kan Reshet Bet: "This is an initiative of Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Yamind). Right now we have a supportive and sympathetic administration in the US - we need to use the opportunity. Even Blue and White need to join this. We have a diplomatic opportunity, an opportunity which will not return."
She also said that "Yamina is the most ideological movement in the Knesset. When we joined politics in 2013, Netanyahu spoke in Bar Ilan about a Palestinian state. It took seven years before it got through, and today it's a consensus."
Blue and White MK Meir Cohen told Reshet Bet that "if the Prime Minister wanted to annex [the Jordan Valley] - he had 13 years to do it. This is an election spin."
On Tuesday afternoon, Gantz promised to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, but quickly backtracked, admitting that he is against unilateral annexation. after Netanyahu called on him to translate his words into actions.
Cohen added: "In the past few months, Netanyahu returned two parts of the Jordan Valley - Naharayim and Tzofar."
Under the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan, the Naharayim enclave and the Tzofar enclave were leased to Israel for 25 years, allowing the Israeli farmers living in the enclave to continue managing their farms.
Just over a year ago, the Hashemite Kingdom announced that it wanted to terminate the lease agreement and take over the two enclaves.
Various attempts were made both in public and in private to change the Jordanian decision, but the efforts failed and Israel was forced to return the enclaves to Jordan.