Jerusalem: US Vice President JD Vance criticised Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation, saying it amounted to an “insult” and went against the Trump administration policies and efforts to ensure that the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds in Gaza.
The Israeli parliament on Wednesday narrowly passed a symbolic preliminary vote in support of annexing the occupied West Bank — an apparent attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while Vance was still in the country.
The bill was sponsored by parliamentary hard-liners, with only one member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party joining them. With Netanyahu opposed, the bill is unlikely to pass the multiple votes it requires to become law.
While many members of Netanyahu’s coalition, including the Likud, support annexation, they have backed off those calls since US President Donald Trump said last month that he opposes such a move. The United Arab Emirates, a key US and Israeli ally in the push for peace in Gaza, has said any annexation by Israel would be a “red line.”
On the tarmac of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport before departing Israel, Vance said that if the Knesset vote was a “political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said.
“The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state. Israeli annexation of the territory would all but bury hopes for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians — the hoped-for outcome by most of the world.
Earlier this week, Vance announced the opening of a civilian military coordination centre in southern Israel, where some 200 US troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries planning the stabilisation and reconstruction of Gaza.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told journalists at Joint Base Andrews late Wednesday that he plans to visit the centre and appoint a Foreign Service official to work alongside the top US military commander in the Middle East, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper.
The US is seeking support from other allies, especially Gulf Arab nations, to create an international stabilisation force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian force.
“We’d like to see Palestinian police forces in Gaza that are not Hamas and that are going to do a good job, but those still have to be trained and equipped,” he said.
Rubio, who is meeting with Netanyahu later on Thursday, has also criticised Israeli far-right lawmakers’ effort to push for annexation of the West Bank.
Israeli media referred to the nonstop parade of American officials visiting to ensure Israel holds up its side of the fragile ceasefire
as “Bibi-sitting.”