Abbas Threatens to Rip Up Accords With Israel, US Over Annexation

Pompeo says annexation is up to Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will cancel all agreements with Israel and the United States if the planned Israeli annexation of the West Bank goes forward. Under a government deal, Israel is expected to start the annexation on July 1.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made the annexation of Palestine a key political position, arguing that President Trump’s endorsement of the past annexation of part of Syria makes this an opportune time to try to take over much of the occupied West Bank on a more permanent basis.

Israel occupied all of Palestinian territory in 1967, and would formally end the question of a two-state solution by annexing the West Bank. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the US views the question of occupying Palestine to be entirely up to Israel.

Yet it is unfair to suggest the US isn’t playing a big role in this annexation, particularly with President Trump’s peace plan serving as the basis for these new territorial claims. It was this plan that finally did away with the pretense that a two-state solution was still on the horizon.

And while Abbas would be cancelling many smaller agreements too, the biggest one is the Oslo Accords. This cancellation all but goes without saying at the point of annexation, as Oslo was meant to clarify what would happen during the occupation and leading to the peace deal. With the peace never to come, Oslo doesn’t make sense to maintain anymore.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.