Shai Alon
Shai AlonHezki Baruch

Shai Alon, head of the Beit El Local Council, left Tuesday’s meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with mixed feelings.

Speaking to Reshet Bet radio, Alon said that "the sovereignty move won't happen in July, and I hope that it happens before the election in the United States. We left the meeting with the Prime Minister with the feeling that Trump is now preoccupied with other things."

The heads of the local councils in Judea and Samaria who attended Tuesday’s meeting with the Prime Minister received the impression that the Americans have taken a few steps back in recent days, and there is a possibility that they will eventually not give the green light to an application of sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

According to the heads of the councils who attended the meeting, the Prime Minister told them that "if we accept sovereignty, we will have to give something in return." They claim that this would be an agreement in principle to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Kan 11 News reported that Netanyahu told the leaders that “in a different plan proposed by a different administration we would be required to be evicted.” The leaders reportedly replied, "We prefer to swim in the sewers rather than drown in fresh water."

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, warned after the meeting, "There is a very serious concern that in the course of talks with the Americans about sovereignty, two poisoned candies will be offered to Israel - a terror state that overlooks Tel Aviv, and the abandonment of tens of thousands of civilians in Judea and Samaria.”

Dagan told Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) that he rejects the idea that the Israeli government needed permission from the US to apply sovereignty.

“There is no such thing as half sovereignty. In historical moments, there are no compromises in the style of Mapai,” he said.