Israel's settler leaders say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defrauded them of their long-held dream of applying Israeli law in Judea and Samaria by agreeing to the country's normalization deal with the United Arab Emirates.
Their anger could be a problem for Netanyahu, whom they accuse of repeatedly floating the idea of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and settlements in Judea and Samaria only to cave in to international pressure when the terms of the UAE deal required him to walk back his promises.
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"He deceived us, defrauded us, duped us," said David Elhayani, head of Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha).
"It's a major disappointment. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity, a golden opportunity that the prime minister missed because he lacked the courage," said Elhayani. "He's lost it. He needs to go."
Video: Reuters
Around 450,000 Jewish settlers now live among 3 million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and another 200,000 live in disputed east Jerusalem.
When Netanyahu promised during recent elections to apply Israeli sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, including Jewish settlements, he said he first needed a green light from Washington.
That green light appeared to have been given by US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan released in January, which envisaged Israel applying sovereignty to its 120 settlements in almost a third of the West Bank.
But when Trump announced the UAE deal this month, he said annexation was now "off the table."
Polls have shown wide support in Israel for the UAE deal. But the ideological settler leadership has significant political clout, and has long been a bastion of Netanyahu's support.
Aware that he might lose their backing to parties even more hawkish than his own, Netanyahu sought to keep settler hopes alive.
"Sovereignty is not off the agenda, I was the one who brought it to the Trump plan with American consent. We will apply sovereignty," he told Army Radio, saying the White House had merely asked for a postponement.
But many settler leaders are unconvinced. MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) said Netanyahu "has been deceiving right-wing voters for many years with great success."
In the hilltop settlement of Kedumim, veteran settler leader Daniella Weiss said: "I don't think the Jewish nation needs to give up any of its treasures, any part ... of our homeland, for a peace treaty."
"I am a pioneer who established an outpost, then my children did it, now my grandchildren are doing it. This is the dream and this is the plan and this is what our movement does."
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