Settlement heads protest tent
Settlement heads protest tentHezki Baruch

Judea and Samaria authority heads met for more than two hours last night with the Prime Minister as part of their struggle to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, as the Prime Minister promised last week in Washington.

The majority of Judea and Samaria authority heads attended the meeting.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan told the Prime Minister: "We see you as a national leader as much as Menachem Begin, we expect you to take a national leadership step like Menachem Begin who applied sovereignty over the Golan Heights in opposition to the U.S. position and that even led to cancelling the security agreement between the U.S. and Israel.

"In the end, years passed, the Golan flourished, and the United States recognized it after a few years. You are a leader on the scale of Begin. We ask that you act like Begin. Begin in one day initiated the law, submitted it to the ministerial committee for legislation and raised it in the Knesset," he added.

He says, "The U.S. government, what they did to you, is like taking you to the top of the Empire State Building, letting you reach the top of the tower, arriving to Washington to make a solemn and international statement to the whole world, and then they throw you out of the tower by stopping the promise. This hurts us because we love you. We ask you to stand up for yourself, to show leadership, to apply sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria."

Netanyahu replied to Dagan and the other heads of authorities: "We must win the elections, there was an internal misunderstanding. We must work to resolve and reach an understanding with the U.S."

Yesha Council Chairman David Elhaini said at the end of the meeting: "We met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, we heard his words, and expressed our support for him. The authority heads asked the Prime Minister to make every effort to apply Israeli sovereignty even before the elections. It was agreed that the ongoing relationship will continue and we'll be updated as efforts progress, in the coming days."