{"id":32136,"date":"2019-02-07T01:23:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T01:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32136"},"modified":"2019-02-07T01:23:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T01:23:40","slug":"netanyahu-poll-rival-plans-west-bank-settlement-removals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32136","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu poll rival plans West Bank settlement removals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nJERUSALEM, RAMALLAH:\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s toughest election rival voiced openness on Wednesday to a future removal of settlements from the occupied West Bank, sparking debate over diplomacy with the Palestinians as a US peace plan looms.<\/p>\n

\nThe secret plan is widely expected to be unveiled after Israel\u2019s April 9 ballot. Any recommendations it might contain to hand over territory to the Palestinians \u2014 and how Israelis respond \u2014 could affect the composition of Israel\u2019s next coalition government.<\/p>\n

\nPollsters see Netanyahu\u2019s conservative Likud party winning around 30 of Parliament\u2019s 120 seats, setting him up for a fifth term. He has ruled out removing settlements from the West Bank, among areas where Palestinians want statehood.<\/p>\n

\nBenny Gantz, a popular ex-general whose new Resilience party is gaining ground against Likud with as many as 24 projected seats, stepped into the settlements minefield on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe need to find a way not to have dominion over other people,\u201d Gantz told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper when asked about prospects for accommodation with the Palestinians, whose negotiations with Netanyahu stalled in 2014.<\/p>\n

\nCiting Israel\u2019s unilateral 2005 Gaza withdrawal, Gantz added: \u201cWe need to take the lessons and apply them elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNaftali Bennett, a partner in the current rightist coalition, said on Twitter: \u201cGiven the Trump plan for a Palestinian state that awaits us immediately after the election, there is a clear and present danger here to the settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Trump administration has not explicitly endorsed Palestinian statehood. US envoys have spoken of both sides in the conflict needing to compromise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nResilience signalled Gantz would conduct any West Bank withdrawals differently to the Gaza pullout \u2014 a possible hint at agreed redeployments with the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\nThe Palestinians responded by reiterating their position that the settlements \u2014 deemed illegal by most world powers \u2014 are an obstacle to their statehood goal and should be removed unless annexed by Israel under negotiated territorial exchanges.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThese ideals and values are the way to achieve peace,\u201d said a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has boycotted the Trump administration since December 2017 over its perceived pro-Israel leanings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAbbas has meanwhile pledged to continue security coordination with Israel, despite recent US funding cuts to Palestinian security forces and years of impasse in the peace process.<\/p>\n

\nAbbas told a gathering of Palestinian and Israeli activists on Wednesday that his government has counter-terrorism agreements with nearly 100 countries, including Israel.<\/p>\n

\nHe added his hopes that a party committed to peace would succeed in the upcoming Israeli elections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM, RAMALLAH:\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s toughest election rival voiced openness on Wednesday to a future removal of settlements from the occupied West Bank, sparking debate over diplomacy with the Palestinians as a US peace plan looms. The secret plan is widely expected to be unveiled after Israel\u2019s April 9 ballot. Any recommendations it might…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}