Israel’s Netanyahu says he won’t miss West Bank annexation opportunity

Israel will not miss a “historic opportunity” to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, calling the move one of his new government’s top tasks.

At a meeting of legislators of his right-wing Likud party on Monday, Netanyahu set land moves in the West Bank as “perhaps the first in importance in many respects” of the tasks to be undertaken by the government he and Gantz formed on May 17.

“We have a historic opportunity, which hasn’t existed since 1948, to apply sovereignty judiciously as a diplomatic…step in Judea and Samaria,” he said, referring to the year of Israel’s birth and using the biblical names for the West Bank.

Palestinians consider such a step as illegal annexation of occupied land they seek for a future state. Last week, they declared an end to security cooperation with Israel and its ally, the United States, in protest at the territorial plan.