At the same time, we are witnessing a historic shift as Western nations long supportive of Israel begin to take a different stance, recognising the State of Palestine one after another. These strong Western voices are also warning Israel, in real time, against any unilateral annexation of the West Bank in response to this global wave of recognition.
“This government in Israel has two options now on the table. It can either respond diplomatically to each of the countries recognising Palestine, or it can declare the annexation of the West Bank as a collective punishment against those nations,” Ambassador Alon Liel, retired senior Israeli diplomat, told me in a short conversation.
For many Israelis, this is seen as the moment to change realities on the ground — taking advantage of Western recognition of Palestine as a pretext to move deeper into the West Bank. While everything they have done in Gaza so far has been approved by the Trump administration, they foresee that this golden era in Washington will not return anytime soon. With the unprecedented support President Trump is granting Israel, taking full sovereignty of the land is exactly what the Israeli far right needs now. As Jason Shvili wrote in the far-right Israeli newspaper Israel HaYom: “No other US administration, Democrat or Republican, has been more receptive to the idea of Israel extending its sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, so annexation must happen as soon as possible.”
Retired Israeli ambassador and senior diplomat Alon Liel agrees that the chances are high the USA will back Israel in such a step. But he adds: “The real fear inside the government now is the threat annexation may pose to the Abraham Accords. The achievement of the Accords and relations with the UAE and Bahrain are attributed to PM Netanyahu. Taking over the West Bank may threaten the future of these agreements. These accords are seen as Netanyahu’s biggest diplomatic achievement.”
Annexing the West Bank has long been a central vision for the future of the Jewish state according to the Israeli agenda, but timing is critical. As we see day by day on the ground in Gaza, Israel has pushed much of Gaza’s population southward, concentrating residents into a narrow strip of land and effectively emptying large areas of Palestinians. These actions appear aimed at displacement, potentially forcing Gaza’s Palestinians to leave for Egypt as part of a broader strategy for a Greater Israel, another vision repeatedly mentioned in the narrative of several ministers in the coalition currently running Israel and leading the ongoing war we are witnessing right now.
Bringing the West Bank formally under Israeli sovereignty would therefore complete the picture — unifying the lands of historic Palestine under the authority of the self-styled Jewish state “The annexation of the West Bank is linked to other plan in the Israeli agenda, linked to the displacement of the Palestinians, the transfer of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem into Jordan” said former Palestinian minister and member of the Legislative Council, Qadura Fares “This harms the Jordanian sovereignty, a decisive stance must be taken by all Arab countries to respond to Israel,” Mr. Fares added.
Israeli opposition, represented by Yair Lapid, the leader of the Yesh Atid party, expressed its disapproval of the possible move to annex the West Bank. Lapid’s concern was not a fundamental objection to the idea of annexation itself, but rather the timing and the heavy diplomatic cost.
“What are they trying to do? Further damage our international relations? All we’ll get out of this is more serious international backlash for something that has no viability,” Lapid said earlier this month. He described calls for taking over the West Bank as “another provocation toward a world that is already turning its back on us.
Image of Palestinian West Bank by oktay karataşoğlu from Pixabay
Former ambassador Alon Liel believes the opinion of the other segment of Israeli society is completely different. “The religious part of the population in Israel does not care about the world — if we lose the support of the world or not, they see the world as antisemitic anyhow. Israel is sharply divided,” Liel said.
Former Palestinian minister Qadura Fares emphasized that the West Bank is occupied — and will remain so regardless of any possible annexation order. Palestinians therefore have the right to resist the occupation, and any annexation would be illegal, adding yet another entry to a long list of Israeli actions deemed violations under international law.
Both the measures Israel is taking in Gaza — pushing the population outward and crushing resistance — and its actions in the West Bank, from the destruction of refugee camps like Nour Shams and Jenin to expanding illegal settlements and cutting the region’s geographical integrity, follow a single prescription. They make a Palestinian state on the land occupied in 1967 impossible. They kill all chances of a two-state solution and pave the way for uprooting the Palestinian people entirely, leaving the land to the Jewish state.
Israel is seizing what it sees as the best use of the remaining three years of the current US administration. In this window, the impossible becomes possible — a season unlikely to return under any future administration. But the true end of eight-decade Palestinian struggle will take far longer than these three years.
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