Israel would lose ‘all support’ from the US if it annexes West Bank, Trump warns
Headed for Israel, Rubio says Knesset’s preliminary vote to annex threatens Trump’s Gaza plan
2 West Bank annexation bills get initial nod, with MKs rebelling against PM as Vance visits
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timesofisrael.com
Trump says ‘Israel not going to do anything with the West Bank’ as US fumes over annexation vote ‘The Israelis can’t treat us like Joe Biden,’ administration official tells ToI, day after Knesset advanced preliminary legislation to annex parts of West Bank while Vance was visiting
US President Donald Trump on Thursday declared, “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank,” as officials from his administration leveled harsh criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after lawmakers advanced legislation to annex parts of the West Bank while Vice President JD Vance was visiting the country.
“Don’t worry about the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House, in his first comments on the matter since the Knesset voted on the two bills Wednesday. “Don’t worry about it,” he repeated. “Israel’s doing very well. They’re not going to do anything with it.”
The measures were passed despite opposition from Netanyahu, in light of Trump’s vow last month that he would not allow Israel to make the controversial move.
“The Israelis can’t treat us like we’re Joe Biden,” a Trump administration official told The Times of Israel late Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Netanyahu regularly sparred with Biden during the Democratic president’s administration and was accused at times of seeking rifts with him for domestic political gain.
The decision by the senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, to draw a comparison to Biden also harkened back to another US-Israeli rift in 2010, under the Obama administration, when the Interior Ministry announced that 1,600 housing units would be built in a Jewish neighborhood of East Jerusalem while then-vice president Biden was in town.Another US official warned Thursday that Trump will “f**k” Netanyahu if the Israeli leader jeopardizes the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, according to a Channel 12 report.
“Netanyahu is walking a fine line with President Trump. If he keeps going, he’ll f**k up the Gaza deal. And if he f**ks up the deal, Donald Trump will f**k him,” the official reportedly told the outlet’s correspondent Barak Ravid.
“In English, it sounds even cruder,” news anchor Yonit Levi noted at the end of Ravid’s report.
The source told Ravid that Vance, in Israel at the time, was shocked by the decision and said that Israel was acting in an “unsupervised” manner.
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