Last Call For The Dog Gets Wagged

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, with elections just 48 hours away, is now promising the "annexation of West Bank" if re-elected.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 12 News on Saturday evening that he will start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if re-elected prime minister in the election on April 9.

It remains unclear at this point whether Netanyahu was referring to all of the West Bank, or only parts of it.

"A Palestinian state will endanger our existence and I withstood huge pressure over the past eight years, no prime minister has withstood such pressure. We must control our destiny," the premier said.

After boasting that he was responsible for U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Netanyahu told the program "Meet the Press": "Will we move ahead to the next stage? Yes. I will extend sovereignty but I don't distinguish between the settlement blocs and the isolated ones, because each settlement is Israeli and I will not hand it over to Palestinian sovereignty."

"I will not divide Jerusalem, I will not evacuate any community and I will make sure we control the territory west of Jordan," Netanyahu told the show's host, Rina Matzliah.

Asked what will happen to the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, which Netanyahu has vowed to evacuate but has still not been and which has been at the center of international condemnations against the decision, Netanyahu promised that "it will happen, I promised and it will happen at the soonest opportunity."

The prime minister refused to say whether he would support term limits, saying there is still a lot of work he needs to do. 

So yeah, Bibi will roll tanks into Gaza if re-elected.  And yes, it appears that despite the massive bribery scandal he is currently under indictment for, his Likud party is tied with opposition leader Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan party in the latest polls.  It's entirely possible that the right-wing bloc will be able to form a government with Netanyahu at its head anyway.

And then the tanks roll in.