Israeli annexation of Judea and Samaria has been placed back on the table, with 15 Likud ministers—including Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana—signing a letter urging Netanyahu to do just that before the Knesset’s summer session ends on July 27.
Why annexation? Extending Israeli sovereignty over the entire of Judea and Samaria would “prevent another massacre in the heart of the country” and “ensure Israel’s security for generations,” the ministers wrote.
And why now? While according to the letter, the time for annexation is ripe following “the State of Israel’s historic achievements in the face of Iran’s axis of evil and its sympathizers,” there’s certainly more to this story.
For one, this may well be a right-wing attempt to attain compensation for ending the war in Gaza—or even a ceasefire. And they’re likely hoping for support from President Trump, whose 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace plan would have seen Israel annex settlements in Judea and Samaria.
Indeed, right-wing Israeli activists are maintaining direct contacts with the Trump administration on this very issue. Bibi, they believe, has other priorities with the president, such as Iran’s nuclear program and normalization with Syria and Saudi Arabia—and, as a result, they fear he isn’t really pressing the White House on annexation.
But there’s also another possibility: This could all be a ploy to help push an expansion of the Abraham Accords.
How so? In June 2020, while Netanyahu seriously discussed unilaterally annexing parts of Judea and Samaria, the UAE’s Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al-Otaiba wrote an op-ed on the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth, warning that “Israeli plans for annexation and talk of normalization are a contradiction.”
Skip forward three months from then: The annexation dream is dropped, and Israel, the UAE and Bahrain are signing the Abraham Accords at the White House.
They’re unlikely to admit it, but those 15 ministers may well remember Yousef Al-Otaiba’s plea—and have now set their sights on Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman.
Source: Amit Segel - X