Trump wins talks over Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. Here’s what it means.

After former President Donald Trump’s reelectionIsrael’s right-wing finance minister has suggested the country will look to annex the West Bank by 2025. Here’s what you need to know:

What is the West Bank?

The West Bank is the area of ​​land on the west bank of the Jordan River, which is part of the British-mandated territory of Palestine. It is surrounded by Israel on three sides – north, west, and south – and borders the land of Jordan on the east, across the river.

After the departure of British forces in 1948 when the modern state of Israel was established, Arab forces entered and occupied the West Bank, and the city of Jerusalem was divided into two parts: western Israel and eastern Jordan.

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and established military rule there. Israel claimed East Jerusalem as part of its territory, but fighting between Israelis and the region’s Palestinian residents – who live with significant restrictions on their movement and other aspects of life under decades of occupation – has continued.

Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, won parliamentary elections in 2006 in the West Bank over the Western-backed party Fatah, which was led by Mahmoud Abbas, who headed the Palestinian Authority. Hamas’s victory brought sanctions and boycotts by the US, the EU and Israel on the new Hamas-led Palestinian leadership.

In 2007, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led administration in the West Bank and created an emergency cabinet that favored Fatah. The power struggle between the two Palestinian factions has led to a split between the West Bank and Gaza, with the West supporting the Fatah-controlled West Bank diplomatically and economically, while blocking The Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

How might US policy change during Trump’s second administration?

The long-standing position of the United States supports a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which means the creation of an independent state of Palestine and an independent state of Israel. Many iterations of this policy envision a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza.

The previous Trump administration tradition buckedbut he did not completely reject the two-state solution. Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and offered a plan that would tighten Israeli control over the entire city. And it would protect Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, while moving toward Palestinian sovereignty.

President-elect Trump’s nominee to serve as the next US Ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, has never supported a two-state solution.

In an interview with the Associated Press during his 2015 Republican presidential bid, Huckabee said that, if elected, his administration would officially recognize the West Bank as part of Israel.

“I feel like we have an obligation to respect that this land has always belonged to the Jews,” Huckabee told the AP.

In a podcast interview earlier this year, Huckabee said there is “no such thing” as Palestinians, describing himself as “unapologetic, uncompromising Zionist.” He expressed similar views during his campaign in 2008.

Israel is “a strange place in a country full of dictatorships surrounded by dictatorships,” he said on a podcast earlier this year.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, has repeatedly expressed the support of the Israeli government for the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

“While the Biden-Harris Administration has publicly supported Israel’s right to self-defense, it has also undermined Israel’s capabilities, resulting in a schizophrenic policy toward the region,” Rubio said in a letter to current Secretary of State Antony Blinken in August.

Expressing his opposition US sanctions against people who allegedly support “violent settler violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank, Rubio wrote that, “Israel has always wanted peace with the Palestinians. It is sad that the Palestinians, whether it is the Palestinian Authority or FTOs like Hamas. , have refused to do so by the Israel who live in their historic land are not obstacles to peace;

The Israeli government says it is preparing for the annexation of the West Bank

Some of those who oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, including members of the current Israeli government led by Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s Likud party is currently part of the coalition, designed to keep Netanyahu in powerwith far-right national groups such as the Religious Zionist Party.

Netanyahu, you have spoke out against the creation of a Palestinian statecommitted to pursuing the inclusion of the West Bank in Likud’s coalition agreement with the Religious Zionist Party.

“The people of Israel have a natural right to the Land of Israel,” the agreement says. “Due to the belief in the above-mentioned right, the Prime Minister will lead in the formulation and promotion of the policy within the framework that will be used by his sovereignty in the West Bank, while choosing the time and taking into account all the national and international interests of Israel.”

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister who is a member of the Religious Zionist Party, said he believes Israel can work with the incoming Trump administration to promote the annexation of the West Bank.

“I am confident that we will be able to work closely with President-elect Trump and all members of the incoming administration, to promote common values ​​and interests of the two countries, to strengthen the strength and security of the State of Israel, to expand the circle of peace and stability in the Middle East because of strength and faith and on the basis of recognition in the unquestionable history of the history of the entire Land of Israel for the people of Israel,” said Smotrich on social media.

Israeli settlements and settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. They are also seen as an obstacle to a possible two-state solution, because if more Israeli Jews live in the occupied territory, it is less likely that Israel will give up control of the land to become part of the Palestinian state. .

A Pew Research Center poll conducted this summer found that Israelis are divided on the potential security risks and benefits of continued settlement expansion, with 40% of respondents saying it helps make Israel more secure and 35% saying it harms security. The survey found 21% of Israelis did not believe that the expansion of settlements would have a significant impact on security.

Some Israeli activists believe their government is taking advantage of the country’s collective grief after the October 7 attacks to advance an agenda in the West Bank that lacks broad public support.

“In Israel, there is very little public criticism or any kind of public debate about what is happening in the West Bank,” Sarit Michaeli, who heads the Jerusalem-based rights group B’Tselem, told CBS News about the situation. -Oct. 7 attacks. “Israelis are angry. They are angry. They are hurt. They are traumatized, and this collective trauma has been used by our government to advance policies that the majority of Israelis disagree with in the West Bank.”

In June, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank transferred much of its power in the area from Israeli military officials to civilians, working under Smotrich.

Since the October 7 Hamas offensive, the monitoring group Peace Now says it has documented at least 43 illegal settlements in the West Bank, mostly on farms. A number of new roads have been tarred to facilitate the establishment of these institutions, said the group.

What would it mean if Israel took over the West Bank?

In 2020, Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) analyzed what Israel’s annexation of the West Bank would entail. They consider three possible scenarios, where Israel assumes full security and administrative control of part of Palestinian territory, or simply to prevent future Israeli settlement withdrawals.

In all three cases examined, Israeli sovereignty will not be fully exercised over the Palestinian people in the area. If it were possible, the Palestinian people would live under the State of Israel and, under Israeli law, have the right to claim citizenship.

The INSS said taking over the West Bank would make it difficult for future Israeli governments to offer this land as part of any deal to create a Palestinian state.

“In essence, the annexation means tying the hands of future Israeli governments that would agree to hand over the territories for political settlement,” the INSS report said.

A senior Palestinian politician in Gaza recently told CBS News that no matter what changes Israel makes under the new leadership in Washington, the Palestinian people’s decades-long struggle for their homeland will not be ended.

“We will fight for our rights,” Mustafa Barghouti, a doctor in Gaza and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative party, he told CBS News. The Palestinian National Initiative group is fighting for a unified democratic government in the West Bank and Gaza.

“It will take time. We will suffer. We know that. But what is the other way? Stop existing? Ethnic cleansing. We will not accept that,” said Barghouti.