SOCHI: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rendezvous with Russian President Vladimir Putin here today claimed that Iran was “ramping-up efforts to attack Israel”.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Putin was part of his drive to win the 800,000 Russian-speaking Israeli voters from the former USSR. This meeting before Tuesday’s polls was important for Netanyahu because of the fact that his Likud party’s centrist opponent is running neck and neck and these ‘Russian votes’ could play important role in deciding who wins the race.
Interestingly all those who converged in Israel from a former communist states are referred as Russians. It is pertinent to mention here though following USSR’s collapse, 1.3 million Russian Jews arrived in Israel, they had to strive hard to integrate after learning Hebrew. Many who migrated to Israel had not worked enough to build-up pensions.
Both political parties are attempting to lure older Russian-Israelis who by and large are great admirers of Putin. Not only advertising in Russian language appeared in social media propagating Likud agenda, in many cities some twenty percent buses and billboards too are harboring the message.
JERUSALEM: Israel has begun building nearly 20,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank during the past decade of Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership, settlement watchdog Peace Now said today.
The group’s annual settlement report highlighted how the issue complicates the chances of resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
It said that construction of 19,346 settler homes had started between 2009 – the year that Netanyahu became prime minister for a second time – and the end of 2018.
“The Israeli government is digging the country a pit to fall in,” said a Peace Now statement accompanying the report.
Israeli PM announces post-election plan to annex West Bank’s Jordan Valley
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says if he wins next election and forms his government again, he is going to annex the Jordan Valley, a large swathe of the occupied West Bank.
“Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea,” Netanyahu said in a speech on Israeli TV.
He further said that he will make sure to take the step “immediately after the election.
“I will do this immediately if I receive a clear mandate to do so from you, the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli PM, during his speech, also called the area “Israel’s eastern border”.
Soon after his speech, Arab League foreign ministers condemned his plan, saying it would undermine any chance of progress towards Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“All signed agreements with Israel and the obligations resulting from them would end if Netanyahu went through with the move,” said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an interview.
Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war and Palestinians, who signed interim peace deals with Israel in the 1990s that include security cooperation, seek to make the area part of a future state.
Around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Israeli settlers live in the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.