The Knesset Wednesday overwhelmingly defeated a bill aimed at annexing the administered territories. It was submitted by Geula Cohen of the ultra-nationalist Tehiya Party.
Four coalition members broke coalition discipline to vote for the measure — Meir Cohen-Avidov and Benny Shalita of Likud; Rabbi Yaacov Yosef of Shas; and Rabbi Haim Druckman of Morasha.
Premier Shimon Peres rejected Cohen’s contention that annexation was the realistic solution for the administered territories following the assassination Sunday of the Israel-appointed Mayor of Nablus, Zafer Al-Masri, a Palestinian moderate. He also challenged her concept of Zionism as taking land, “dunam-by-dunam, house-by-house.”
“What kind of realism proposes to settle Jews in the Gaza Strip, in a tiny area heavily populated by Arabs while the Negev is empty?” he asked. He said “dunam-by-dunam” Zionism would lead to “more hatred, more antagonism and more battles.”
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