Israeli Minister Says Trump Victory Presents Israel ‘Opportunity’ To Annex West Bank

Some Israeli hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government see the incoming Trump administration as a representing a big opportunity to annex more territory in the West Bank.

“The year 2025 will be, with God’s help, the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, using the biblical name for the West Bank. This region is home to some three million Palestinians who have long aspired to establishing a State of Palestine.

He continued in the Monday remarks by saying “no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions in the first term, will support the State of Israel in this move.”

Smotrich himself holds a position in the government which allows him to directly oversee the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

He is hopeful because Trump during his first administration pulled the trigger on a number of controversial big asks from Israel – including relocating the US embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of an Israeli capital, formally recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and ruling that a number of Israeli settlements in the occupied West bank are ‘legal’.

Trump also oversaw the Abraham Accords, which has already resulted in the normalization of relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, with the idea that Saudi Arabia will be next as the ultimate peace achievement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis are no doubt happy with Trump tapping Elise Stefanik, a pro-Israel Republican congresswoman from New York, to serve as next US ambassador to the United Nations.

One Lebanon-based Arab news source has cited the following:

Liberal Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz commented that Stefanik is widely expected to focus on combating criticism at the UN of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.

But regardless of who represents the US at the UN, the way Washington votes on matters related to Israel and the Palestinians has been consistent across administrations for several decades.

Israel’s far-right minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announces his intention to annex the illegally occupied West Bank, home to more than 3 million Palestinians.pic.twitter.com/BVuoD7Yle2 https://t.co/111RFEYa2j

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) November 11, 2024

In many ways the US is already isolated, given that many UN resolutions involve the US and maybe a half-dozen of its allies taking a pro-Israel stance (including tiny island-nations heavily dependent on US support), while the majority of the rest of the world tends to be the opposite.