Will the second Trump Administration greenlight Israeli annexation of the West Bank? Several of the President-elect’s recent appointments have suggested at least a friendliness to the idea. Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who has said in the past that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” has told Israel’s Army Radio that “of course” Israeli annexation is a possibility, though nothing has been decided. Pro-annexation Israeli hardliners, seemingly bolstered by Trump’s picks, are pushing the idea with new verve.
Whether Trump intended to signal support for annexation is unclear, but if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interprets it that way, tragedy is the likely result. If Israel absorbed the West Bank, it would erase any hope of a Palestinian state, cause enormous damage to U.S. global standing, and plunge a region where over 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed into the worst chaos it has seen since at least the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. It would be disastrous for U.S. interests and the Trump Administration should vigorously discourage it.
Israeli annexation of the heartland of a future Palestinian state would unleash massive unrest that could spur new waves of terrorism directed not only at Israel but the U.S. as well. Washington’s support for Tel Aviv was one of Osama bin Laden’s three stated rationales for declaring jihad against the U.S. Already, U.S. officials have testified to Congress that U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza could motivate future anti-American terrorism, given that Washington is the main arms supplier to Tel Aviv, possibly with “generational” impacts.
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