JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the large settlement blocs.
Bennett, the head of the Jewish Home party, sent a letter to Netanyahu late Wednesday night asking him to call a Cabinet meeting to discuss the possible annexation as a response to the Palestinians applying to international conventions. Bennett in his letter called annexation a “Plan B” following the near collapse of the current round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
The areas Bennett said would be annexed are those “which enjoy a broad national consensus and have security, historical, and moral significance for the State of Israel,” his letter said.
Chief Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni responded on her Facebook page, calling Bennett a “provocative child.”
She wrote: “Why not, lets go for it, if we want to go made lets do it all the way, so we can never reach an agreement and become a bi-national state and lose everything we love. Why not!”
