Trump Aides Begin Discussing Israel’s Planned Annexation of West Bank

US expected to push for step-by-step annexation

After months of Israel publicly talking annexation of the West Bank, and saying they believe they have America’s blessing for doing so, the top aides in the Trump Administration have just begun discussing what the US position should actually be.

The entire annexation scheme came out of a combination of Trump’s peace plan, and his endorsement of Israel’s annexation of Golan. US officials have certainly given the impression they were comfortable with punishing the Palestinians for not endorsing Trump’s plan by unilaterally annexing much of Palestine out from under them.

Since this has been talked about so openly for so long, it is hard to imagine that the US hadn’t settled on its actual position on annexation yet. Given how badly this would impact the chances of a peace deal, the expectation is that the US will at least ask Israel to slow the annexation into a step-by-step process.

The process would allow the US to keep courting the Palestinian Authority after the first round of annexations, trying to get them into some position short of complete opposition. Since almost the whole rest of the world is likely to criticize the annexation without some concessions for the Palestinians, it’s important to at least give the illusion of a process.

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.