OVER THE past four years, Binyamin Netanyahu has refused most interview requests. But as he fights for a fifth term as prime minister, in what looks likely to be a close election on April 9th, he has hit the television studios to appeal to right-wing voters. In an interview on April 6th he offered Israelis something new: annexation of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu specifically promised to extend Israeli sovereignty over Maale Adumim, a large settlement bloc on the outskirts of Jerusalem. How annexation would proceed after that he left vague, but his message was clear: “I will not uproot even one settlement and make sure we rule in the territory west of the Jordan River.”

Israel captured the West Bank in the six-day war of 1967. It immediately annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem. But since then it has made no further move to annex the West Bank, despite mostly being led by right-wing prime ministers. Menachem Begin, founder of the Likud party, which Mr Netanyahu now leads, spoke of claiming the West Bank, but never followed through after becoming prime minister in 1977. Such a move would mean absorbing 3m Palestinians, making it difficult for Israel to remain both a Jewish and democratic state. Even if Israel were merely to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, that would leave the Palestinians with disconnected islands of territory, in all probability killing the two-state solution.

Mr Netanyahu has been prime minister for the past ten years, during which he has stubbornly refused to grant any concessions to the Palestinians. But he was also one of only two members of his party in the Knesset not to have come out in support of annexation of the West Bank. So why is he pushing for it now? There are two possible reasons: one political, the other strategic.

The polls put Mr Netanyahu’s bloc of nationalist and religious parties ahead of the centrist-left opposition. If nothing changes, he will probably remain prime minister. But Likud is running neck and neck with Blue and White, a new centrist party led by Benny Gantz, a former general. Even if he wins, Mr Netanyahu fears losing votes to Blue and White. A smaller Likud would make it more beholden to its right-wing allies, which might demand powerful ministries or changes of policy. By dangling the prospect of annexation, he may be hoping to entice more of their supporters to vote for Likud. “It’s a blatant election gimmick,” said one minister. “There has been no discussion of this in the cabinet.”

But Mr Netanyahu may also sense an opening. In the past two years President Donald Trump has recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli control over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967. Last month, as Mr Netanyahu was returning from a visit to Mr Trump, reporters were briefed that American recognition of the Golan could serve as a precedent for other territories acquired by Israel in “a defensive war”.

Facing indictments on charges of corruption, Mr Netanyahu will be under increasing pressure from his right-wing partners to keep this latest campaign promise, or risk losing their support. He might think he can get away with annexing only Maale Adumim. But even that would be likely to cause a diplomatic crisis with Israel’s non-American allies, which are still committed to a two-state solution. The Palestinians might see it as threatening any prospect of statehood. To Mr Netanyahu, though, that seems to be the point: “We have to control our destiny, and that is going to be impossible if we place [in the West Bank] an independent, Arab entity—an Arab state, for all intents and purposes. A Palestinian state. That will endanger our existence.”

Dig deeper:

Israel’s growing settlements force stark choices about its future (Graphic detail)

Binyamin Netanyahu: a parable of modern populism (Leader)