‘Deal of the Century’ to leave settlements in Israeli hands

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are to remain under Israeli rule, according to the “Deal of the Century” the US is planning to roll out, according to a Channel 12 report from Sunday evening.

The report made clear that under the American peace plan, the correct term is not “annexation” but the “application of Israeli law” on Jewish settlements in the West Bank, akin to what was done in the Golan Heights in 1981.

According to Channel 12, US President Donald Trump is waiting until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form a government to release the plan.

Likud MK Michal Shir thanked Trump for what she called “the historical justice he is doing with the State of Israel.”

She added that Jewish settlement in the West Bank is now a matter of “consensus in the Israeli public” and no longer a question of “right or wrong but rather how and when.”

Shir called on the Knesset to pass her bill, which calls for the immediate annexation of all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan valley.

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shomo Neeman said that the alleged American decision did not happen on its own but thanks to “the intense work of the Israeli government and the one leading it, Benjamin Netanyahu.”

South Hevron Hills Regional Council head Yochai Damri urged the government to use this “window of opportunity” and annex the West Bank.

Left-wing Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg called the reported Trump plan “a punishment to the people of Israel,” saying that annexing the West Bank would be “against the Israeli interest” and warned it might “set the region on fire.”