Democratic senators urge Trump to oppose West Bank annexation

Forty-four of the 45 Democrats in the US Senate have sent a letter to US President Donald Trump urging him to reaffirm his opposition to Israel's annexation of the occupied West Bank, Axios reported on Tuesday.

John Fetterman of Pennsylvania - a vocal Zionist who has adopted the far-right positions of the current Israeli government - was the only Democrat not to sign on. 

"Since your plan for Gaza does not address the West Bank, it is imperative that your Administration reinforce your comments and emphasize its opposition to annexation," the letter said. 

"Steps by Israel to annex territory or expand settlements that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state... have elicited deep concern and opposition from Arab partners and place at risk your past achievements under the Abraham Accords and the possibility of expanding them further," the senators warned. 

"In this moment, it is essential that the United States reject measures that undermine the viability of a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". 

The letter was spearheaded by California Senator Adam Schiff, who has come under fire over the last two years from constituents for his expressions of unconditional support for Israel, while progressives in his state present more nuanced positions. 

A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Wednesday shows that 80 percent of Democratic voters now support the recognition of a Palestinian state, and 41 percent of Republican voters believe the same. 

Red lines

Trump had already pledged to Muslim leaders in a meeting in New York last month that he would not allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank. That condition is widely believed to have been the now-removed 21st point of what became his 20-point plan for Gaza. 

The problem is that much of the occupied West Bank is already de facto annexed - and US officials have either openly condoned it, such as US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, or simply ignored it, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio is expected to visit Israel "soon" and take part in an event "organised by a settler group in a politically sensitive archaeological site" under the Palestinian village of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem, very near al-Aqsa Mosque, Axios reported, citing Israeli officials. 

Israel passes preliminary bill to annex the occupied West Bank

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Vice President JD Vance spent his second day in Israel on Wednesday, meeting with President Isaac Herzog and Netanyahu, in a trip that was billed as a confidence-building measure for the Gaza ceasefire agreement. 

But as those meetings played out, the Knesset advanced a bill that would extend Israeli law to the whole of the occupied West Bank, and ultimately lead to the annexation of the land.

The bill will require three more rounds of votes before becoming law, but it passed with 25 MPs in support and 24 against. 

“The State of Israel will apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlement areas in Judea and Samaria, in order to establish the status of these areas as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel," said the bill, using the Israeli name for the occupied West Bank.

Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party also proposed a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, which also passed.

A senior Emirati official on Wednesday indicated that Trump's landmark Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and three Arab nations in return for favourable US moves in 2020, would be at risk if Israel proceeds with annexation, which he referred to as a "red line" for the United Arab Emirates. 

"Some policies are no longer valid and should not be reincarnated, the maximalist views on the Palestinian issue are no longer valid. We have to address the issue that we have two contending nationalisms fighting on one piece of land, and that land has to be divided," Anwar Gargash, a top adviser to Emirati ruler Mohammed bin Zayed, said at a Reuters summit held in Abu Dhabi.

“Are we going to continue with this sort of maximalist views on how to address the Palestinian issue? For example, by the Israeli right, which has to understand that this is not going to go away," he added.