Until Thursday night there was always the possibility that a combination of considerations could cause Binyamin Netanyahu to indefinitely postpone applying Israeli law to those areas identified in the Trump Map as being part of sovereign Israel under any future deal with the Palestinian Arabs.
Netanyahu will do everything in his power to deny Bennett the opportunity to proclaim “I told you so” by failing to apply Israeli law to Judea and Samaria in the coming months.
But that all changed with Naftali Bennett sitting in the opposition.
The Netanyahu family cannot abide Bennett (it's a long story) and that extremely emotional hostility makes ending Bennett’s political career a top priority. They are confident that applying Israeli law to areas of Judea and Samaria, as promised, while Bennett sits in the opposition, will render him irrelevant.
But, by the same token, the Netanyahu family is painfully aware that should Binyamin Netanyahu fail to honor this monumental promise, for whatever reason, Bennett will enjoy a meteoric rise as the voice of the true national camp.
You can, therefore, rest assured that Binyamin Netanyahu will do everything in his power to deny Bennett the opportunity to proclaim “I told you so” by failing to apply Israeli law to Judea and Samaria in the coming months.
A few quick observations about the Trump Deal.
#1. The wording of the Trump Deal intentionally strips “sovereignty “ of some of its meaning such
that even acceptance of the concept of the Deal doesn’t necessarily mean acceptance of anything more than autonomy.
"Sovereignty is an amorphous concept that has evolved over time. With growing interdependence, each nation chooses to interact with other nations by entering into agreements that set parameters essential to each nation. The notion that sovereignty is a static and consistently defined term has been an unnecessary stumbling block in past negotiations. "
#2 The Trump Deal does not link applying Israeli law, to those areas identified in the Trump Map as being part of sovereign Israel under any future deal with the Palestinian Arabs, to formal acceptance of the Deal by either the Government or the Knesset. Netanyahu’s public statements to date suffice.
#3. Arguments against applying sovereignty whose validity hinges on our current relations with Jordan continuing in perpetuity are embarrassingly farcical. I say “embarrassingly” because as an Israeli I am embarrassed that people who held key positions in our nation’s defense in the past are so short-sighted in their thinking.
#4. The Palestinian Arabs are correct when they complain that the Arab world is more interested in working with Israel (both covertly and overtly) on pressing matters than on serving Palestinian Arab interests.
Dr. Aaron Lerner and his late father Dr. Joseph Lerner founded the Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA) government accredited news organization in 1992,which provides an ongoing analysis of developments in Arab-Israeli relations.