NEWS DESK
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if re-elected. It will be a dramatic policy shift apparently aimed at rallying his nationalist base in the final stretch of the tight race.
More than 600,000 Israelis now live on war-won lands, two-thirds in the West Bank. In an interview to Israel’s Channel 12 TV yesterday, he portrayed the US policy shifts on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as his achievements, saying he had managed to persuade Trump to take these steps.
The voting for the 120-member Knesset will begin on Tuesday. Mr Netanyahu pledged that he would not dismantle a single Jewish settlement and that Israel would retain control of the territory west of the Jordan River – the West Bank.