Annexing the West Bank
Terry H. Schwadron
April 8, 2019
In what should be a surprise to no one, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now vows to start annexing areas in the West Bank if he is reelected in elections tomorrow— a next step from gaining U.S. approval to grab the Golan Heights.
He resisted saying he would grab the entire area at once, home to 2.8 Palestinians and 400,000 Jewish settlers, but left the door open.
Netanyahu vowed not to divide Jerusalem or “uproot any settlement,” and said he would “ensure that we will control the territory west of the Jordan River,” meaning the entire West Bank.
It is a dramatic policy shift apparently aimed at rallying a nationalist base in the final stretch of a tight re-election to a fourth term. Though Netanyahu always has pushed for expansion of Jewish settlements, this finally is the vow that will wipe out any remaining hope for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Apart from all else, including inflaming anti-Israel sentiments across the various sectarian allegiances among Arabs, this vow comes out just before the White House supposedly is to produce a mysterious, promised Middle East plan for resolution of outstanding issues. That plan has been touted at the crown achievement for Jared Kushner, the presidential son-in-law and senior adviser.
According to The New York Times,in the eyes of most of the world, it would also be a violation of international law that bars the annexation of land seized in war. There is a long body of United Nations resolutions resisting just such a move.
In addition, it puts the United States directly in support of land-grabbing, undercutting any valid claims that this country makes in promoting itself as a friend to all, a peace-keeping honest broker. And it undercuts our moral authority in calling out Russia for grabbing pieces of Crimea and Ukraine, among others, in the name of might over right.
Netanyahu recently has trailed his main challenger, Benny Gantz, a former army chief of staff, in final polls of the campaign. He has been trying to mobilize conservative Israelis to vote for his Likud party rather than more extremist parties.
Since the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and built a new U.S. embassy there, and approved of Israeli plans to annex the Golan, it seemed inevitable that Netanyahu would move against the West Bank too. Netanyahu boastfully has bragged of his own political prowess in winning over Trump’s support for these moves, though Trump is making just as much noise to persuade all that he is first in line to back Israel, particularly against the aggressiveness of Iran in that region.
The West Bank issues have lingered since 1967 when Israel captured the land west of the Jordan River. In any partition deal, the more isolated Jewish settlements would likely have to be uprooted to create a viable Palestinian state.The West Bank is now under Israeli military jurisdiction, though settlers are subject to civilian law, as Israeli citizens.
What we now face is an Israel moving towards institutionalizing its authoritarian controls over Arabs, duplicating the conditions of a new kind of apartheid, a highly controversial move within Israel and among American Jews.
Clearly this new West Bank declaration is an issue that will continue to plow through U.S. domestic politics as well as the Israeli elections, with President Trump equating a singular one-state solution as support for Israel and for American Jews, and attacking any other thoughts about the Middle East as anti-Semitic.
Naturally, the many American Jews I know believe that anti-Semitism is a subject that arises quite apart from any resolution of Israeli and Middle East real estate. Indeed, many American Jews would not be acceptable to the religious right in Israel as Jews. And, in this country, this same president who claims the sole political friendship of Jews on behalf of Israeli politics is the one who did not stand with Jews during Charlottesville, the same president who declines to denounce white supremacy, the same president who has allowed anti-Semitic symbols to creep into his campaign literature and who has fostered the growth of hate talk and action.
Tell you what: At our Seder this month, we will include an olive on the holiday plate to remember our Jewish responsibilities to Palestinian brethren. We did not undergo the liberation of the Passover story to become the new Egyptian overlords for Palestinians stuck within new Netanyahu-declared borders.
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