Vice President JD Vance in Israel. Politico/Getty.
The Trump administration has become frustrated with Israel and has publicly criticized them for a vote to annex the West Bank. Politico. Actions by Israel have threatened the Gaza war cease fire, most notably a few strikes in response to an attack and the vote to annex the West Bank. The Trump administration said the strike, which killed as many as 40 people, was an overreaction and was disproportionate to the attack on two Israeli soldiers. The vote to annex the West Bank frustrated Trump so much that he threatened to pull all support from Israel and JD Vance said he was personally insulted by the move. Netanyahu faces a difficult balancing act. He blamed opposition parties for the vote and said it was meant to sow discord as VP Vance and Secretary of State Rubio are visiting, but he will need support from those parties if he wants to remain in power next year. However, he also can't risk angering President Trump as Trump is very popular in Israel, especially after negotiating the peace deal and release of hostages.
My Comment:
A fairly disturbing development out of Israel. I am not surprised that the Trump administration is angry with Israel, as I share their frustration. The hardliners in the Knesset are playing an extremely dangerous game and one that risk not only reigniting the war but also losing the support of the most pro-Israel president in American history.
Indeed, the article points out that Trump could make or break Benjamin Netanyahu in next years elections. Trump is extremely popular in Israel, even before he brokered the peace deal. Now, his approval rating is in the upper 70's and he is extremely well liked among Netanyahu's conservative base. Should Trump choose to not support Netanyahu, I can't imagine him winning next year.
The annexation threat is the real problem. The strikes were not a good idea and were not really proportionate to what happened, but it's a minor incident in the big scheme of things. The annexation threat though? It's something that could derail the entire peace process.
And the biggest problem is that it's the West Bank. The West Bank was not an issue during the Gaza war. There wasn't much in the way of conflict even during the darkest days of the war, and notably, the West Bank did not enter the war when Hamas launched the October 7th terror attack. To escalate against them now is absurd.
It's a terrible message to send to the folks of the West Bank. They rejected the kind of violence that Hamas embraced. You would think they would be rewarded for that, not punished. But instead they risk being annexed by Israel, something that might make them rethink the no-violence thing...
Netanyahu is basically under siege from the hardliners in his coalition. They didn't want the war to end and do want to annex the West Bank, even though I don't think it's going to happen. I think that Netanyahu is right, this was an attempt to sew chaos when JD Vance and Marco Rubio were in the country. And it absolutely accomplished that.
Will this have longer term affects? I am guessing not. Netanyahu did seem to try and make nice with the Trump administration and they seem to be pretty satisfied at this point. But I do wonder if this will be in the back of Trump's mind when he decides to endorse or not endorse Netanyahu next year. Certainly, both he, JD Vance and Marco Rubio were upset with him and it's not the first time this has happened.
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