Will settlers' anger push Netanyahu into Blue and White's arms?
Yamina and settlers leaders are demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unilaterally annex West Bank territory despite the objection of the White House, but their campaign runs the risk of backfiring politically.
The campaign being waged by leaders of the Yesha Council to annex parts of the West Bank is not only intensifying, but expanding in scope as well. What was once a campaign limited to pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown to encompass the Donald Trump administration and its leaders, until recently the settlers’ best friends. One possible consequence is that the settlers will end up distancing themselves and the religious Zionist movement that backs them from Netanyahu, pushing him into the arms of the Blue and White in a unity government.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council and considered the “foreign minister” of the settler movement, has emerged as the most strident proponent of the attacks on Netanyahu and the US administration. It all began when settlers erected a protest tent outside the Prime Minister’s Office on Feb. 4.
