JNS
Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, is “someone who has a long record of being vocally supportive of annexation.”
Israel’s strength stems from its people, but its continued presence on the Jewish nation’s historic homeland is vastly important as well—both from a security as well as a nationalistic perspective.
With a deeply pro-Israel U.S. administration currently in the White House under President Donald Trump’s second term, the question many Israelis have today is whether Israel will annex any part of Judea or Samaria.
Enia Krivine, senior director of the Israel Program and the National Security Network at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS, “It’s very hard to predict what Trump will do.”
She said this administration’s staffing, different from the last administration, “will impact decision-making.”
Krivine pointed out that Mike Huckabee, a minister, former governor of Arkansas and Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel, is “someone who has a long record of being vocally supportive of annexation.”
She noted that Huckabee “is also an emissary to Trump’s powerful Evangelical base, a large percentage of whom are supportive of Israel and believe that the Land of Israel – including Judea and Samaria – was promised to Jews in the Bible.”
“A lot will depend on who Trump empowers to manage this file,” she said.
Huckabee is not the only major U.S. figure to express pro-Israel views. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump’s appointee as UN ambassador, was asked in her confirmation hearing in January if she agreed with the view that Israel has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank,” to which she replied she did.
The need for Israel to annex and control strategic areas in Judea and Samaria and to counter the Palestinian ideological rejection of any Jewish state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has only been further bolstered by the hostility and misguided opinion expressed recently by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
He recently seemed to suggest that Israel has no legal or historic rights to any part of Judea or Samaria and accused it of committing “a war crime” by occupying land he believes belongs to the Palestinians.
“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” Türk said.
He also said: “Israel’s settlement policy, its acts of annexation, and related discriminatory legislation and measures are in breach of international law, as the International Court of Justice has confirmed, and violate Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”
According to a report by his office, Israel’s government last year “ratcheted up settlement of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, transferring its own population into the territory and unlawfully demolishing Palestinian homes, while settler violence increased in a climate of continuing impunity.”
Türk demanded that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers.”
The report goes on to accuse Israel of the “ongoing transfer of Government powers over the Occupied Palestinian Territory from the Israeli military to the Israeli Government” and is “facilitating the advancement of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the steady integration of the occupied West Bank into the State of Israel.”
Notwithstanding the report and Türk’s accusations, Israel’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Avi Dichter convened a meeting on Sunday with senior officials from the Yesha Council to address both the challenges and opportunities involved in advancing agricultural development and prosperity in the region.
In his remarks on strengthening Israeli agriculture, Dichter stated, “We are at a historic moment that must not be missed; the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
Israel Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the potential of the region.
“Judea and Samaria can be at the forefront of Israeli agriculture,” Ganz said. “But to achieve this, bureaucratic obstacles must be removed, and the communities must be allowed to manage the land and agricultural reserves like anywhere else in the country. One of our central challenges stems from the fact that Israeli law does not apply in Judea and Samaria. The time has come to apply sovereignty.”
Words are one thing; actions are another.What would need to fall into place for this to happen?
According to Krivine, if Huckabee is placed in charge of the Judea and Samaria portfolio, “there’s a good chance that the White House will give Israel some flexibility on the issue of annexation.”
Hillel Frisch, a professor of political science and Middle Eastern history at Bar Ilan University, told JNS he isn’t sure he understands what Türk was referring to when he talked about Israel transferring its civilian population. However, if it means expanding Jewish communities, then he said he believes “it has increased, most of it through private initiative,” meaning, not through a government project.
Frisch said if the political conditions allow it, it is possible that Israel could annex the Jordan valley and surrounding areas, as well as Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel.
There is no question that vehement opposition to the idea of annexation exists within Israel and while the majority of those against identify with the left-leaning political spectrum, there are also some on the Center and Right who, with certain incentives, would be willing to forgo the idea.
For instance, many Israelis favor normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state over annexing Judea and Samaria, according to new polling data, though it is unclear what percentage of respondents identified with the Right, Center, or Left.
The survey, conducted recently by the aChord Research Institute at Hebrew University, found that when presented with two options—“promote a regional political-security arrangement that includes normalization with Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, and agreeing to establish a Palestinian state” or “promote full annexation of the West Bank”—60 percent of respondents chose the former, while 31 percent favored the latter.
Krivine raised this point as well. She said that unilateral annexation would “likely slow or stall normalization with Saudi Arabia, which Bibi sees as critical for Israel’s future.”
She added that even if unilateral annexation would be “blessed by the White House” it will cause “a huge international headache for Israel,” and it is up to Israel’s leadership “to decide if the trade-off is worth it for them.”
With this in mind, it is important to understand the possible advantages and disadvantages of annexing any part of Judea or Samaria.
In Krivine’s view, “there are big risks and big opportunities here and different ways that annexation could happen.”
During his first administration, Trump proposed the “Deal of the Century,” which involved annexation in the context of a larger peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.
According to Krivine, “If Trump can work with regional partners to craft another peace proposal that includes some Israeli annexation in Judea and Samaria in exchange for other, generous offers to Palestinians, including potential land swaps, then there’s a chance that Israel could annex territories in Judea and Samaria in the context of a deal.”
“As usual, the Palestinians will be the deciders, and they have never agreed to any deal, so it’s hard to imagine them ever saying ‘yes’ and ending the conflict,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s highly unlikely that they will change their rejectionist ways.”
The major advantage of annexing Judea and Samaria, according to Frisch, “is the prevention of the emergence of a Palestinian state.”
