Samarian Regional Council head Yossi Dagan responded on Tuesday to reports that the coalition agreement to be signed between Likud and Blue & White will not insist on the application of sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.
“I welcome the establishment of a unity government,” he told Arutz Sheva. “After [more than] a year of election campaigns, we need a stable government. However, I urge Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu] not to back down on the issue of sovereignty.”
He added that, “For many years, my friends and I have been struggling and working toward the application of sovereignty, and trying to gain legitimacy for the concept in Israel and abroad. Finally, we’re seeing results. Even within the Blue & White party, many support sovereignty, and thanks to the Prime Minister’s efforts, the US administration also supports the process.”
Dagan added that sovereignty can be applied even without American consent. “[Prime Ministers Menachem] Begin and [Levi] Eshkol applied sovereignty over the Golan Heights and liberated Jerusalem, despite the official American position which opposed this. However, today we are being presented with a historic opportunity that may not reoccur for another 100 years or more, an opportunity that should not be missed. The Prime Minister should insist on this matter and not make concessions at this historic moment when he has the possibility of making sovereignty a reality.”
He noted that 12 percent of Israel’s citizens live beyond the pre-1967 borders, and that “it’s time that they were given equal status – especially since this concerns the heartland of Israel’s heritage and history.”
Referring to the Yamina party, he said that “they are part of the right-wing bloc, our brothers and partners. As a Likud man who voted Likud, I urge the Prime Minister not to abandon our partners. [Yamina MKs] Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, Bezalel Smotrich and Rabbi Rafi Peretz are valued people and partners. A solution must be found.”
Dagan also expressed his feeling that MK Yuli Edelstein, the former Knesset Speaker, should be either reinstated or given another prominent position. “We shouldn’t back down on this either,” he says. “Aside from the fact that he is a national symbol and a former Prisoner of Zion, he served as Knesset Speaker for seven years with great distinction.”
Dagan concluded that, “It is possible to establish a unity government based on national principles, together with the entire right-wing bloc and with significant members of the center-left bloc joining too. But this historical opportunity of sovereignty must not be missed.”
