Leader of the Yamina list (formerly the New Right) Ayelet Shaked told i24NEWS on Sunday Israel's right-wing had a "big opportunity" to annex Area C of the West Bank while US President Donald Trump was in the White House.
Speaking to i24NEWS and Israel Hayom in a special election broadcast, Shaked said she has been pushing a plan for years to apply Israeli sovereignty to Area C in the West Bank, which is home to Jewish settlements and accounts for over 60% of the West Bank.
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Under the proposal, which the former justice minister said is Yamina's primary goal, Shaked says Israeli law would be applied to the almost 500,000 Israelis there while citizenship or residency would be offered to the 100,000-200,000 Palestinian residents.
"I think there is a big opportunity to apply Israeli law while President Trump is still in office," Shaked told i24NEWS.
"He has almost two more years in office, let's hope that he will stay more. He is a very good friend of Israel and he has a very supportive team around him that supports Israel."
"There is a big opportunity for us in the next two years to start applying Israeli law even in the consensus area like Gush Etzion or Maaleh Adumim ... We need to start doing it."
Shaked also repeated the arguments she made in an interview to Israel Hayom's weekend supplement, published Friday, in which she said that the far-right Otzma Yehudit should drop out of the election, lest it waste votes and prevent the establishment of a right-wing coalition.
Shaked stressed that polls were no indication of what would actually happen on Election Day.
"In reality, the big parties take votes from the small parties … There is no chance Otzma Yehudit will pass the minimum electoral threshold, so it would be better for them to drop out," she said.
Switching to security policy and the recent escalation along the Gaza Strip border, Shaked said she believes "Israel in the end will have to do a military operation in Gaza."
Israel, she insists, will have to do "something severe that will hurt Hamas," which could include evacuating villages around the Gaza border for a few weeks so the army will be able to act and ensure that Hamas does not get new weapons every year."
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
