I don’t think we should be surprised. They’ve also been working together on a host of other issues related to sharing resources or economic factors. The extent of what he’s been saying is something new, but the contents or the substance itself is not new. And the Israeli economy is quite large, and it’s pretty clear that many of the Arab economies have structural problems that they have to reform. It found that 25 percent of Israelis oppose any application of Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], while 24 percent support applying Israeli sovereignty to all of it — so that’s roughly equal. The plan would also create new pockets of Palestinian territory south of Gaza, near the Egyptian border. What will be surprising is if he flat-out said, “No.

Requirement that both sides recognize the State of Palestine as the nation state of the Palestinian people and the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. And that’s not new. But we also see specific responses often change. So what about Netanyahu, then? However, it isn’t clear if these will remain in the plan after they were so widely condemned in January. According to Shaul Arieli, this would be 23 percent of the annexed land. And he agrees to let Netanyahu be in a bit more of a senior position, with Netanyahu as prime minister for the first part of their rotation agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, of the Blue and White party, averted another election, but the deal also laid out a plan for annexation of parts of the West Bank as soon as July 1. Even if it does something really small and says, “We have now annexed this,” they’ve moved the goalposts and created language that actually embeds annexation into the discourse.
Given all the questions swirling, I contacted Brent E. Sasley, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington and an expert on Israeli politics, to talk about the basics: what annexation means, why all this is happening (or not happening) now, and what comes next. But the viability of that future state is complicated by the presence of some 500,000 Jewish settlers who also live in the West Bank, in settlements dotted across the approximately 2,262 square miles of territory. Gantz, whose support Netanyahu needs to move forward, is also urging patience, suggesting Israel deal with its own growing coronavirus outbreak first. A general map showing the Jordan Valley annexation plan. On Tuesday, more than 50 years after Israel captured the West Bank and built settlements there, the US swept all that condemnation of Israel into irrelevance. Would it be possible to work out an agreement on the West Bank without actually addressing the question of Palestinian statehood? He’s given observers a bit of a roller coaster ride. A Palestinian demonstrator holding a poster decrying U.S. President Donald Trump in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, February 25, 2020. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Creation of "a high-speed transportation link" between the West Bank and Gaza, "crossing over or under the State of Israel's sovereign territory.". The Americans said recently that they’re prepared for annexation “within weeks.” Under the coalition agreement between Likud and Kahol Lavan, on July 1 – meaning in a month’s time – Netanyahu will be able to “bring the agreement reached with the United States on the issue of applying sovereignty to a debate in the security cabinet and the full cabinet, and for the approval of the cabinet and/or the Knesset.” On Monday, Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud’s Knesset faction, in response to an MK’s question, that “the target date for beginning annexation is July 1, and we don’t intend to change it.” He added that “this is an opportunity that can’t be missed.”. And if that’s the Israeli perspective, how do Palestinians see it? Another issue is the Basic Law on Referendums, under which yielding land that is subject to Israeli law would require a Knesset majority of 80 lawmakers, or a public referendum.

He offered some historical context to explain the current dynamics and the still-present uncertainty about this moment. Abbas has been working with Israel for a very long time on security issues, which has been to both sides’ benefit but especially to Israel.

But shortly afterward, when Israeli declarations regarding annexation gained steam, most countries expressed strong opposition to any unilateral move – and this is the prevailing line of thought in the international arena at the moment. We know some information about it. On something like annexation, they’re not going to launch a war against Israel, like the old paradigm of conflict used to be.

How has the world responded to possible Israeli annexation? But there’s only so far that can go. So that’s part of the overall process we’re seeing.
Right, that’s a good question. Maybe that’s an impossible question to answer, but I’m curious how much he’s helped shape public opinion.

Any war that’s taken place since then has been with what we call a “non-state actor” and Israel. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Who does Trump owe hundreds of millions of dollars to? This replaces the military rule (“belligerent occupation,” to give it its official title) that applies under international law to occupied territories. But if the US doesn’t say anything, he knows he’s got the support of some people in the administration, at least privately.

The rest of the world has also resisted the plan: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson penned an op-ed against it.

I know I’m not really answering the question, but I think it depends. These are the purview of the European Commission, not the EU foreign ministers. It also refers to the application of Israeli law in the settlements and often the surrounding areas. And you have the Palestinians, who themselves are divided, so that weakens their position. But while Trump described his proposal as a "realistic two-state solution," Palestinian leaders swiftly rejected the plan, which caters to nearly every major Israeli demand and mandates the contested city of Jerusalem as the "undivided" capital of Israel. However, Trump stressed that this recognition did not preclude future negotiations over the fate of these territories. The only other two options out there are enormous pressure on Israel to at least halt the process of creeping annexation, or you get a change in domestic politics in Israel and Palestine. What is their position, and is there anything Palestinians can do? That support is what’s necessary in order to form the government.

Benny Gantz, his partner, was not as keen on annexation as originally thought, and the settlers were really upset that the plan at least created some sense, however temporary, of an actual Palestinian state.

I don’t think so. When Ehud Barak was the Israeli prime minister and participated in the discussions at Camp David and Taba at the end of the 1990s and in the 2000s, he proposed swapping land. The European Union is leading the global opposition on this issue, along with Jordan, which would suffer concrete damage from the annexation of the Jordan Valley. Again, this is where the ambiguity comes in. What that has done is, in part, made the Palestinians dependent on Israel. For some people supportive of annexation, they think that the entire area should be annexed. So that is kind of the big question.

Again, it’s not all Abbas’s fault, and it’s not all the Palestinians’ fault — they’re just in a much weaker position and there’s no way for them to get out of that position on their own. plan for annexation of parts of the West Bank as soon as July 1, has some other things to deal with, like a raging pandemic and economic recession, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson penned an op-ed, was not as keen on annexation as originally thought, the settlers were really upset that the plan, as an election ploy in this latest election, as prime minister for the first part of their rotation agreement, Please consider making a contribution to Vox today, How Vienna’s opera houses are staying open in the pandemic, Exclusive: New poll shows few Americans approve of Trump’s handling of North Korea. Plenty of other observers, commentators, scholars, and activists have been arguing that for many, many years. Part of this analysis appeared in the January 29 edition of CNN's Meanwhile in America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Has the pandemic played any role in how annexation has — or rather hasn’t — played out? Palestinians in the West Bank have been able to use, in a limited way, the Israeli Supreme Court to dispute, for example, the route of the security barrier that Israel built. Ever since then, that underlying sense of religious nationalism — because religion is part of it — really connected them to the area.