Air Force Two— US Vice President JD Vance has strongly criticized two votes by the Israeli parliament to advance annexation of the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian land that includes east Jerusalem and is considered by the international community as part of the future Palestinian state.
Vance told reporters in Tel Aviv before he boarded Air Force Two heading to Washington that he had been told the votes were “symbolic” and a “political stunt.”
“If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said as cited by CNN.
At the same time, Mr. Vance expressed optimism that Rafah, a city in southern Gaza of half a million people that has been totally destroyed by Israel in the last two years, could very much be rebuilt in two to three years.
He said that the hope is for people to be able to move back to Rafah, and that the reconstruction effort could start “very quickly” in areas not under Hamas control, according to CNN.
The so-called “symbolic” and a “political stunt” votes in the Knesset included one bill to annex the West Bank passed by a single vote, 25-24, and another bill to annex the illegal settlement of Maale Adumim in the West Bank passed by 32-9.
In both cases, more than half of Israel’s Knesset did not vote, a fact that international recognition of the Palestinian state and the widespread condemnation of Israel’s apartheid policy in the occupied territories may have made some Israeli politician worrisome of their illegal actions.
Pouring cold water on Zionists colonial desires for applying Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, Vice President Vance said, “the West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy,” as quoted by CNN.
Vance’s clear position on the status of the West Bank was strongly support by the President of the United States Ronald Trump. In the Time interview on Thursday, Trump bluntly said he won’t allow it.
“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. It will not happen,” President Trump said. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” he stressed.
A broad coalition of Arab and Muslim states, led by Saudi Arabia, blasted on Thursday the Knesset vote as a “blatant violation of international law.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Vance said he felt “pretty good” about the overall maintenance of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza despite the potential of “little breakouts of violence.”
“There are little exceptions to break out here and there that would be expected when these two parties have been at war for two years. But so far, the ceasefire is actually holding,” and both Israel and Hamas are respecting it.
“Look, if this peace sticks, you’re going to have these little breakouts of violence. Our message to the Israelis has been: ‘help us build this peace.’ Obviously, the Israelis have their own interests, but we’re going to keep on trying to work with both them and the Gulf-Arab states to make this peace stick,” he said according to the CNN and other news agencies.
On Tuesday, Mr. Vance refrained from putting a timeline on the return of all Israeli hostage remains or, in that respect, Hamas’ disarmament, saying it would “take a little bit of time” and that security and humanitarian structures must be implemented in Gaza.