Women in Green
Women in GreenEliran Aharon

The Women in Green (WIG) organization, an advocate of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, responded on Monday to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's (Yisrael Beytenu) warning not to annex Judea and Samaria lest the US cut ties with Israel.

"Minister Liberman is mistaken and misleading when he says the application of sovereignty would lead to a crisis with the American administration," WIG leaders Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar said. "We do not know who Minister Liberman has been talking to, but from our sources, it is clear the Trump administration's policy has not changed."

"Only yesterday there was a delegation from Congress here, who came to arrange for the transfer of the embassy. Our sources in Congress continue to say Israel must consolidate her policy positions and these will be honored by the American administration and the White House. The Trump administration does not intend to force any plan upon Israel.

"It must further be noted that for decades, relations between Israel and the United States were subject to disagreement over the Palestinian issue and the matter of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the American administration continued to maintain good relations with Israel in light of the depth of American interests in the Middle East.

"The Palestinian matter is very low on the list of US priorities. At the top of this list is the conflict with Iran, as well as dealing with Islamic terror and strengthening the pro-American regimes in the region.

"As a result, the application of sovereignty will not result in the crisis and conflict Minister Liberman is concerned about. The thought that Israel must place its security needs in the hands of the American president is unthinkable."

Katsover and Matar also say Liberman's "demographics crisis" is not as bad as it seems to be. Liberman, they say, speaks of 2.7 million Arabs in Judea and Samaria, while actual validated data shows there are only 1.8 million. They also note westernization has led to a falling Arab birthrate, now equal to the Jewish one.

Regarding the actual cost of annexation and giving Israeli citizenship to Judea and Samaria's Arabs, Katsover and Matar said, "We must remember that the Land of Israel is worth more than twenty billion shekels. And moreover, Minister Liberman knows well that the expenses in security would be ten times greater than this if there was, heaven forbid, a Palestinian state.

"The Oslo Accords cost Israel more than 933 billion shekels. We can only guess how much more a Palestinian state would cost us, G-d forbid. The price in blood, literally, would also be higher in the absence of an Israeli presence in the field, in the absence of intelligence, in a situation where a Palestinian terror state could flow in heavy munitions which would threaten the population centers and in a reality where a Palestinian terror state could form alliances with hostile armies and states."