Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has the "full right" to annex the Jordan Valley if it chose to, even as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned the country against taking the bold step.
Netanyahu said his proposal to annex the strategic area was discussed during a late-night meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said they also agreed to move forward with plans for a joint defense treaty.
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The longtime Israeli leader is promoting the two initiatives as a justification for staying in office.
The Trump administration has already delivered several landmark victories to Netanyahu, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights. Netanyahu says that thanks to his close relationship with Trump, he is singularly positioned to further promote Israeli interests at this junction before the 2020 US election season heats up.
The annexation move would surely draw condemnation from the Palestinians and much of the world and almost certainly extinguish any remaining Palestinian hopes of gaining independence.
In her annual report, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office was following the Israeli annexation proposal "with concern."
When asked by reporters about the warning, Netanyahu insisted that it is Israel's "full right to do so, if we chose so."
Netanyahu's visit with Pompeo was their first since the secretary of state announced last month that the US no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Israeli nationalists have interpreted that policy change as a green light to begin annexing parts or all of the West Bank.
Netanyahu called their meeting in Lisbon "critical to Israeli security."
In particular, he noted the progress they made toward a joint defense pact that would offer Israel further assurance against a future attack from Iran. He said he has informed his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, of the progress in the initiative.
Israeli defense officials, and Gantz as well, have expressed concern that such a pact could limit Israel's freedom to operate militarily. Netanyahu said he was aware of the reservations but assured that it was a "historic opportunity" and Israel would not be limited to act against archenemy Iran.
Mike Makovsky, president and chief executive of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in Washington, which has been promoting the idea of a narrow defense pact, said the proposal would offer "an extra layer of deterrence" and "mitigate the intensity and scope" of a potential war with Iran.
"Just like every other mutual defense treaty it would be left to the discretion of both parties how it would be implemented," he said. "Mutual defense pacts have been sources for stability."
In Lisbon, Netanyahu also met with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa and thanked him for adopting the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of anti-Semitism, which toughens guidelines to include some forms of criticism of Israel. Israeli researchers reported earlier this year that violent attacks against Jews around the world spiked significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades.
