Israeli Knesset Speaker Urges to Annex the West Bank By Tov Roy
He is the Speaker of the Knesset, enjoying its best seat. Nobody blocks his view up there. He is the first one to get the tea in the morning and always, always gets freshly baked cookies; the stale ones go to the opposition. He even gets daily personal updates from the chefs, those indefatigable conspirators. He is such an eminent figure, that if the President of the State doesn’t feel good, he replaces him.A former lawyer of the Warring Family, he is nowadays a proud member of the Likud. Reuven Rivlin is his name. On October 30, 2012, he met with the leaders of the settlers, among themGershon Mesika, Head of the Shomron Regional Council.During the encounter, which included a tour through prominent settlements, Rivlin opened his campaign to the upcoming elections by throwing a bombshell. He proposed that the government silently adopt the Report on the Legal Status of Building in Judea and Samaria published on July 9, 2012, by retired Justice Edmond Levy.In other words, he wants Israeli law to be imposed in the West Bank. Even this phrasing is too soft. He proposed the annexation of the West Bank without announcing it by a formal law, in contrast to the done with the Golan Heights. During the meeting with the settlers, he said that the report should not be officially adopted “because then we will bring the others [the international community] to stand up against us and demand not only the annulment of the report but also the dismantlement of the settlements.”This is an intriguing approach for a lawyer, especially considering the troubling way he continued his argumentation. “It will be correct for the government to look at the report and act according to it, without officially adopting it or announcing this to the people and the world.”Astonished settlers applauded this argument in favor of the government acting according to secret and illegitimate directives. Supporting Israel’s expansionist policy, Rivlin explained why Netanyahu didn’t sign the report: “The Israeli government is in a tough position between holding the Entire Land of Israel ideology and pressures from abroad.”With the radicalization of their extremist policies, Rivlin and Netanyahu may find themselves winning the upcoming elections only to lose their government in the subsequent war.