Israel’s Yesha Council is “deeply concerned” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to set a deadline for extending Israeli sovereignty to the region during a meeting with a council delegation in New York on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Judea and Samaria leaders on Sunday that he would tell U.S. President Donald Trump the region is inseparable from the Jewish state, according to the umbrella group of Judea and Samaria communities. However, he would not commit to a timeline.
The Prime Minister’s Office agreed to try and coordinate a follow-up meeting on Monday after his White House visit, the council stated.
The PMO had not responded to a JNS request for comment regarding Sunday’s meeting by time of publication.
On Saturday evening, the council announced that an “unprecedentedly large emergency delegation” consisting of the organization’s leadership, as well as Judea and Samaria mayors and council heads, had departed for New York following Trump’s remarks against Israeli sovereignty.
Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office on Sept. 25, Trump said that he had ordered Netanyahu ahead of their Monday meeting not to “annex the West Bank” and that he would “not allow” the move to take place.
“There’s been enough,” Trump told reporters. “It’s time to stop now.”
The Yesha Council claimed in its statement on Saturday night that the establishment of a potential Palestinian state “is closer than ever, and the international pressure on Netanyahu to establish it is intensifying.”
“The coming days in the U.S. will determine Israel’s security for the years ahead,” it added. “We will be there to ensure that a terror state threatening all Israeli citizens will not be established. Sovereignty is the only way to achieve this. The decision rests in the hands of the prime minister.”
Trump was scheduled to welcome Netanyahu at the White House on Monday morning amid talks for an emerging truce deal with Hamas.
The New York meeting—Netanyahu’s fourth since Trump returned to the White House in January—was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time (6 p.m. in Israel). As part of their meeting, the two leaders will share a meal, followed by a joint press conference at 1:15 p.m.
Trump told Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday that talks on his plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip were in the final stages and that the deal could potentially open the door to broader peace in the Middle East.
The president stressed that Netanyahu backed his proposal, as have multiple Arab and Muslim nations that were part of the negotiations.
Netanyahu’s governments have considered applying sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, or at least the Jordan Valley, on several occasions.
Anticipation for such a move peaked in 2020, shortly before Trump and Netanyahu unveiled the Abraham Accords. As part of the U.S.-brokered agreement signed in September 2020 that normalized Jerusalem’s relations with the United Arab Emirates, Netanyahu agreed to suspend the plans.
Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that his opposition against a Palestinian state “is not simply my policy or my government’s policy; it is the policy of the state and people of the State of Israel.”
“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7th is like giving Al-Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11th,” he said. “This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it.”
Nearly 70% of Israelis want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.
