ToI Community update: Editor’s Note: Annexation — what is Netanyahu up to? * Webinar: Jewish CTA on George Floyd * Podcast: Activism and Liberal Judaism

[The Times of Israel]( Dear Community members and Daily Edition readers, Whenever Israel’s knee-jerk critics around the world are salivating at the prospect of an imminent development, it’s a safe bet that this development is bad news for Israel. Likewise, if the regime in Iran can’t believe its good fortune. Similarly, if the boycott-Israel movement feels the wind beneath its wings. That’s what’s happening now, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly declares his intention to begin annexing up to 30 percent of the disputed West Bank — potentially covering all the settlements, and the Jordan Valley area — from July 1, subject to American approval. (The move, if it goes ahead, will be formally termed not “annexation” but an “extension of Israeli sovereignty and/or law” to territory where Israel’s claims legitimate rights.) It’s not entirely clear what Netanyahu really intends to annex: Will he declare Israeli sovereignty over all of the West Bank land allocated to Israel under the Trump administration’s “Peace to Prosperity” proposal, unveiled at the White House in January? Will he focus first on the 132 settlements, with the Jordan Valley to follow later, as he [indicated]( to settler leaders earlier this week? Or will he begin with the main settlement blocs — the Etzion Bloc, Maa’ale Adumim and Ariel — as some Israeli officials have been [quoted]( saying? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurates a new promenade in the West Bank settlement of Efrat on July 31, 2019. (Courtesy) It’s also not entirely clear where the US Administration stands on the move — which negates the core, negotiated premise of the Trump proposal mere months after the much-anticipated intended deal was unveiled. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner slapped down Netanyahu when the prime minister declared he’d begin annexing within days of the White House ceremony, [stressing]( that a joint mapping team would first have to complete its work, and that Israel would have to have a fully functioning government. Israel does now have a proper government, but the mapping work is incomplete, and the administration — preoccupied with anti-racism protests and battling COVID-19 — is sounding what might best be described as ambivalent. It is [saying]( both that annexation is entirely up to Israel, and that it needs to be part of [discussions]( with the Palestinians. For their part, the Palestinians have rejected the entire Trump plan, and on Tuesday [revealed]( that they had submitted to the Quartet (US-Russia-EU-UN) a counter-proposal for a demilitarized Palestinian state throughout the West Bank with the possibility of some land swaps. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend a press event in the East Room of the White House, at which Trump released details of his administration’s plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on January 28, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP) What’s most unclear, however, is why Netanyahu, after 14 years of quietly expanding Israel’s presence in the West Bank without dropping the international bombshell of unilateral annexation, is so hell-bent on annexation now — when it runs the risk of igniting violence on the ground, threatening Israel’s vital peace treaty with Jordan, reversing the gradual warming of Israel’s ties in parts of the Arab world, and shifting much of the international community from slumber into adversarial action. His new-found enthusiasm only gathered pace in the course of Israel’s threepeat election campaigns, as he sought to encourage pro-settler voters to choose him and Likud over Naftali Bennett’s right-wing Yamina and its various offshoots and factions. But not even all the [settlers]( are with Netanyahu, since many of them regard the Trump plan’s conditional provision for eventual Palestinian statehood as unacceptable and, looking at the still-not-finalized maps, find numerous settlement communities at eventual risk of isolation within that future Palestinian entity. The international community is overwhelmingly opposed to any unilateral action in the West Bank, with Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, visiting Israel today on what amounts to a “please don’t do it” mission. Recognition by the Trump administration can and likely would be reversed by a subsequent president from the Democratic Party, whose gradual drift away from Israel can only be accelerated by unilateral annexation. Much of Diaspora Jewry is bitterly opposed to the move; much of the rest is discomfited. Netanyahu argues that Israel has a unique opportunity, with so empathetic a president as Trump, to establish the legitimacy of its presence in the biblical Judea and Samaria. But attempting to do so unilaterally will have the opposite effect: Much of the world community currently accepts Israel’s presence in the disputed territory, and its overall security control there, as an interim situation whose specifics will be finalized in bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations — as Israel has always demanded. And a goodly part of that world community recognizes that Palestinian intransigence has doomed such efforts to date. Unilateral Israeli annexation, by contrast, renders Israel the intolerant party, the party changing facts on the ground, and thus invites accusations that Israel is torpedoing prospects for a negotiated accord, turning Israel’s hitherto quietly tolerated presence anywhere and everywhere in the disputed territories into a subject of front-burner international focus. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi (right) greets his German counterpart Heiko Maas with an “elbow bump,” due to the COVID-19 coornavirus pandemic, at the ministry in Jerusalem on June 10, 2020. (Menahem Kahana / AFP) While supportive friends such as Maas are frankly urging Israel to reconsider, we can be certain that Israel’s relentless critics are gearing up efforts to allege that the unilateral extension of Israeli sovereignty into the West Bank represents an iteration of apartheid, and to press for a punitive response. This depiction will be further fueled by Netanyahu’s own [declaration]( that Palestinians in the annexed areas will not be eligible for Israeli citizenship, but rather will remain in non-Israeli enclaves under overall Israeli security control. So why, then, is the worldly Netanyahu, this most calculating of politicians, so ostensibly determined to push ahead? The new Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, [asserted]( last week that “it’s all spin,” implying that nothing will actually happen. Netanyahu’s journalist biographer, Anshell Pfeffer, is of the [same]( opinion. But the prime minister has reiterated his intention over and over and over again. He could certainly find all manner of pretexts to back away — the fact that his ally Trump has so many other concerns right now, for a start — but is showing no inclination to do so. Has the prime minister decided that this is to be his legacy — as the Israeli leader who formally, permanently reconnected modern Israel to its formative biblical territory? Well, maybe. Except that so long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains unresolved, a declarative Israeli move will not gain widespread recognition. (Israel’s declaration of sovereignty over the pre-1967 Green Line in Jerusalem is not widely recognized. Even Trump’s 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital did not specify the scope of such Israeli sovereignty.) Is the gambit intended to distract attention from the prime minister’s legal woes? That seems near-impossible to countenance — so much international disruption for such minor, if any, real personal benefit. The first meeting of the new unity government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz at the Knesset, May 17, 2020. (Alex Kolomoisky/Pool) Or is it an overture to some cunning plan to pitch Israel into yet a fourth election, in which rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz is depicted as the obstacle preventing Netanyahu’s planned annexation, and the prime minister, already [soaring]( in the polls, breaches his coalition deal and sweeps to a fresh victory without the radical inconvenience of having to hand over power to Gantz in November 2021? That possibility, as well, seems just too radically cynical, even in this deeply cynical political era. Doesn’t it? 🤝 NOW MORE THAN EVER: Join the ToI Community We are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the Community, and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. If you haven’t yet joined the ToI Community, [please do so now!]( All Times of Israel content remains open to all readers. But if that content matters to you, do please support us — for as little as $6 a month. 🖥 Did you miss a Community update, webinar, podcast or benefit? It’s all right on [the ToI Community page]( (accessible only to logged-in Community members). 🎥 ToI Community Webinars TODAY: A Jewish call-to-action on George Floyd and civil rights Please join us today, Wednesday, June 10, at 11:30am ET/6:30pm Israel for an exclusive ToI Community Zoom webinar on the Jewish response to the current civil unrest in the US. We’ll meet with the co-chairs of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association, Rabbi Jill Crimmings and Rabbi Aaron Weininger. Click the image above or the link below to join this webinar on Zoom: [JOIN ON ZOOM]( ** ICYMI: We held two outstanding webinars last week that you can catch on recorded video by clicking below: - [Unilateral Annexation and its Repercussions with ToI diplomatic correspondent Raphael Ahren]( - [Civil rights and civil unrest: Insights from Minneapolis]( 🎧 ToI PODCAST: Activism, Liberal Judaism, and pursuing justice In this moment of complex activism taking place all over the world during the coronavirus crisis, we speak with Rabbi Sergio Bergman, the new head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Bergman, currently locked down in his Buenos Aires home, is a Reform rabbi who turned social activist after the 1994 bombing of the Jewish Community Center – an act of terrorism that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds and whose perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice. Now Bergman is set to come to Israel to champion world Liberal Jewry and fight for religious freedom in Israel. Hear [this episode here]( — and be sure to subscribe to The Times of Israel podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 🙌 June perks for ToI Community members: - 10% off Israeli artist Lea Nikel’s prints at [ArtSource](. Indicate you’re a member of the Times of Israel Community to receive discount. - 15% off at [Milk & Honey Distillery](. Discount Code: timesofisrael_mh-distillery (Israel shipments only; discount on all but Distillery Exclusive Edition) - 10% off any custom photo bencher at [Let’s Bench](. Discount Code: 10TOI - 10% off from [BeerBazaar]( ([English](). Discount Code: TOI-COMMUNITY - A 15% discount at [Judaica Webstore.](Discount code: TOI_15 - A $100 voucher for a Hebrew course from[ eTeacher.]( Be well! David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to The Times of Israel's Daily Edition and/or you are a member of [The Times of Israel Community](. If you would like to stop receiving these emails, please click below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe]( Email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser](