The announcement on Thursday of the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and that Israel had agreed to stop plans to annex parts of the West Bank, drew both optimistic excitement and anger, with some settlers in the West Bank left feeling outraged and betrayed.
Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settler opposition party Yamina, congratulated leaders for the agreement, but said “it’s sad [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu missed a once-in-a-century opportunity to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley… and the rest of Israeli settlements [in the West Bank]. It’s tragic Netanyahu hasn’t seized the moment and hasn’t had the courage to extend sovereignty even over an inch of the Land of Israel.”
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