The Blue and White party will not join a government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, MK Yair Lapid said Sunday night, adding that Netanyahu’s pledge to annex Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria is impractical and cannot be carried out.
Speaking to Kan Reshet Bet, Lapid mocked Prime Minister Netanyahu’s pledge Sunday morning that he would annex Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria if reelected.
“You can’t apply Jewish sovereignty just to the towns,” said Lapid. “What Netanyahu’s comments mean is sovereignty over 2.9 million Palestinians, and giving them National Insurance payments.”
Lapid added that even a more limited annexation of just the major settlement blocs and towns near the pre-1967 border would have to be part of a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority, and not undertaken unilaterally.
“Sovereignty is something that happens on the ground. Other than [Transportation Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, there is absolutely no one who thinks it is a good idea. Netanyahu is being held captive by his partners, because he wants immunity. What scares [Netanyahu] is the idea of going to prison, so he goes to Elkana and says something that is totally disconnected from reality.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the Kramim elementary school in Elkana, in western Samaria, where he pledged to annex all Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria if reelected.