Perspective: Whether Israel annexes the West Bank could be up to Trump, not Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on Monday, the day before Israeli elections. By Shalom Lipner Shalom Lipner Bio Follow Shalom Lipner is nonresident senior fellow for Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council. From 1990 to 2016, he served seven consecutive premiers at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. April 9 at 6:00 AM Israelis are going to the polls on Tuesday.
Annexation is the holy grail for large segments of the Israeli right — Netanyahu's preferred coalition partners — with over 40 percent of all Israelis actually favoring a full or partial incorporation of the West Bank into Israel. Dangling the prospect of such a move, which the prime minister began doing after his visit to the White House in March, is a quintessential act of pandering to his base.
That's why the U.S. role is pivotal to what happens next. As a robust democracy, Israel has no lack of independent agency. But when it comes to major changes in policy, Israeli leaders have always checked to see which way the winds were blowing in Washington. The roots of today’s annexation discourse extend far back beyond the advent of the Trump presidency: Security and religious arguments advocating for Israel’s retention of all or parts of biblical Judea and Samaria date to the immediate aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the territory in question.
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