Netanyahu's told Trump he won't evacuate anyone from Judea/Samaria

The prime minister's told about what he's said to Donald Trump in their discussions together:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had made clear to President Donald Trump that he is not prepared to evacuate “a single person” from any West Bank settlements.

When asked if he knew the details of Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Netanyahu told Channel 13 in an interview broadcast Friday that he knew what he had told Trump to include in the agreement.

“I know what I said: I said there can’t be the removal of even one settlement, and [that Israel insists on] our continued control of all the territory to the west of the Jordan,” Netanyahu said.

Which I hope is what ambassador David Friedman was referring to when he spoke of the administration understanding Israel's need to maintain control of Judea/Samaria.

Asked in the interview, which was recorded on Wednesday, whether he had specified this to Trump personally, Netanyahu said he had set out the same positions to Trump and former US President Barack Obama. He elaborated that he had specified to Trump that he would not evacuate “a single person” from the settlements.

“You said that to Trump?” he was asked.

“Like that,” he said, adding that it had been recorded.

Were the US plan to contradict those positions, he indicated, it would not be viable. “As far as I am concerned, [the evacuation of settlements] won’t be there [in the plan], and if it is [in the plan], it won’t [happen].”

Trump, he said, “is the best friend Israel has had” in the White House, and respects his position, “as I respect his,” when he insists on something.

When asked if he expected the US administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank like Trump recognized the Golan Heights last month, and why he wasn’t pressing Trump now to approve Israeli sovereignty over the settlements, Netanyahu said: “Wait until the next term.”

“All the settlements, without exception, those that are in blocs and those that aren’t, need to remain under Israeli sovereignty,” Netanyahu told interviewers Rani Rahav and Sharon Gal, adding that this would “eventually” happen.

Over 400,000 Jews live in West Bank settlements. Another 200,000-plus live in East Jerusalem neighborhoods annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.

I sure hope it does happen. And something tells me it will. Not only that, something tells me that in time, Europe will be able to free itself from socialist shackles it's been trapped in for centuries, and also free itself from the Islamist forces that were foisted upon it by awful politicians in past decades.

Trump's excellent deal of the century

Donald Trump's middle east policy plans include getting Jordan to give citizenship to the so-called palestinians:

President Donald Trump will push for Jordan to grant citizenship to one million Palestinian refugees as part of his "Deal of the Century," according to the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar.

According to UNWRA as of 2016, there were 2 million Palestnian refugees in Jordan.

Trump will also ask Egypt to grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees.

According to the report, Jordan and Egypt will receive USD $110 billion in economic aid. It is not yet clear where this reported aid will come from. Jordan would receive USD $45 billion, and the remainder would go to Egypt. For both of the countries part of the money will be used for implementing projects on the ground.

The absorption would happen in stages, where the largest number of refugees that Jordan would have to take in at one time would be 300,000. Palestinians from Gaza who are currently in Jordan would be included in this deal.

Part of the deal would also include giving Jordanian land, Naharayim and Tzofar, to Israel. These enclaves are currently leased to Israel, but officially Jordanian land. In return, Jordan would receive land from Saudi Arabia, the report claimed.

There's more about the topic over here, including that Lebanon's being urged to do this. And it's the right thing to do, to have Arabic countries start accepting their own back into their fold again, and not force them into specific roles or identity politics. This is a plan I can decidedly get behind, since it can work to Israel's benefit, and the Arabs too.

Gantz doesn't trust his party colleagues

And they may not trust him either. In this latest report on leaked audios from the Gantz party headquarters:

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz said he is “not sure” about a single member of his party’s senior leadership, in a new batch of leaked recordings aired by Channel 13 on Sunday night.

The TV channel released a series of remarks made by the prime ministerial candidate on a host of issues, including his thoughts on his fellow party members, the possibility of joining a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the performance of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in the corruption probe involving submarine purchases from Germany.

Channel 13 did not specify when the comments were made, but the recordings appeared to have been from the last several weeks.

On the remaining three members at the top of Blue and White’s list — Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi — Gantz was revealed to regard them with suspicion.

“I’m not sure about any of the three. I’m not sure about anyone,” the former IDF chief of staff is heard saying.

On Ashkenazi in particular, the Blue and White chairman was caught taking issue with an interview the No. 4 candidate gave to Channel 12 last month, in which he did not say outright that Gantz was the most suitable candidate from the party to serve as prime minister.

“I think he wasn’t right,” said Gantz of Ashkenazi’s response to a question about whether Gantz was the best candidate in the party for prime minister. “He should have said ‘Benny will be an excellent prime minister… He is more suitable than me at this point to be the prime minister,'” Gantz was heard saying in another undated conversation.

Ironically, the recordings were broadcast on Channel 13 just after Lapid told reporters at a Blue and White campaign event Sunday evening that his relationship with Gantz is very close.

“There are values of friendship here as well as an understanding that this (election) is greater than any of us. I trust Benny and Benny trusts me,” Lapid told reporters. “We know we will know how to work together.”

But as some analysts are now stating, they surely don't, and that's mainly because they're only in this to oust Netanyahu as premier. Interestingly, it still looks like they're willing to sit in a government with Netanyahu:

Willingness to sit under Netanyahu

Gantz was also heard considering the possibility that he may fail to defeat Netanyahu on April 9. But despite public statements asserting that he will not sit in a Netanyahu government, the recordings caught the Blue and White leader entertaining that idea.

“Let’s say that he wins the election, a week later (US President Donald) Trump puts forward a (peace) plan and the people of Israel look at Benny Gantz and say, ‘Come, let’s shield Netanyahu,’ because otherwise (far-right MK Bezalel) Smotrich will kill the last option (we have) to do something.”

Oh, I get it. He so dislikes what the other right-wing parties stand for, he's willing to sit in the same government just to entertain leftist ideologies. Ultimately, Gantz and company don't have a policy, and that's why they're not worth voting for. Their failure to maintain unity within the ranks is another reason why they'd make an awful government.

Update: here's more about this on Breitbart.

NYC councilman expelled from immigration committee for stating facts

A member of the NYC immigration council was removed by Democrats for making clear "palestine" doesn't exist:

Kalman Yeger, a New York City councilman, lost his seat on the City Council’s Immigration Committee for tweeting “Palestine does not exist.”

The tweet, posted Wednesday, came in response to a tweet by Zainab Iqbal, a journalist for the local publication Bklyner. Yeger, who represents the haredi Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, also called Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar an anti-Semite. Omar has been accused repeatedly of echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes.

The City Council’s leadership team met Monday and removed Yeger from the committee, according to The New York Times. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had condemned Yeger’s statement and said he should step down from the Immigration Committee if he does not apologize. Council Speaker Corey Johnson also said he was “uncomfortable” with Yeger sitting on the committee.

So creeps like Ilhan Omar are fine in their twisted view, but decent people who're trying to defend Israel are not. This is the Democrat party as it is today, and nobody with common sense and realism should waste their time on what's now becoming a horrible cesspool in politics.