The Knesset and the annexation of the occupied West Bank…provocation of the opposition or rebellion against Netanyahu? | news

Contrary to what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to burden the opposition with the major international pressure on Tel Aviv after the Knesset (Parliament) initially approved a draft law to annex the occupied West Bank, right-wing figures and parties within the ruling coalition continue to push forward annexation projects that make Israel isolated globally.

In an attempt to escape international criticism and declared American condemnations, Netanyahu’s office considered, earlier Thursday, that the Knesset’s vote to annex the occupied West Bank “was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to stir up strife,” during the visit of US Vice President J.D. Vance to Israel.

Although Representative Yuli Edelstein, a member of the Knesset from Netanyahu’s Likud Party, voted in favor of the annexation bill, along with representatives from two right-wing parties participating in the ruling coalition, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism, Netanyahu’s office claimed that the Likud and religious parties did not vote in favor of the project.

Rebellion against Netanyahu

In the atmosphere of conflicts within the ruling coalition, Israeli observers described the Knesset’s approval of the annexation project as “a rebellion within the right against Netanyahu” and “an attempt by the right to depart from Washington’s dictates to implement sovereignty,” rather than an opposition move in the traditional sense.

The far-right movements within the legislative institution put Netanyahu in the dilemma of confronting the United States’ commitments to Arab and Islamic countries not to allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank after the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip entered into force on October 10.

Earlier Thursday, US President Donald Trump said that Israel’s annexation of the West Bank “will not happen, because I promised the Arab countries that,” warning that Tel Aviv “will completely lose the support of the United States if that happens.”

His deputy, Vance, also told reporters in Tel Aviv that the Knesset vote, “even if it was a political maneuver, is stupid and upset me.”

Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank would end the possibility of implementing the principle of the two-state solution stipulated in the relevant international legitimacy resolutions.

The private newspaper “The Times of Israel” reported that the supporters of the proposal from the right-wing parties wanted to confirm that Netanyahu had reneged on his electoral promises regarding the so-called “imposition of sovereignty” under pressure from the Trump administration, and that he was “invoking diplomatic considerations to freeze the annexation.”

It quoted an unnamed right-wing source as saying that voting on the draft law to annex the West Bank “aimed to expose the government’s fragility to public opinion,” and to show that “the majority in the Knesset now supports annexation, but only Netanyahu is preventing its implementation to please Washington.”

While Haaretz newspaper said that the initiative came from far-right representatives, including Avi Maoz (from the Noam Party, which previously withdrew from the coalition), and was supported by representatives from the Finance Minister and National Security Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, all of which are parties that participate in the government or were among it, which makes what happened “an internal rebellion against Netanyahu rather than a confrontation with the opposition.”

Washington’s dictates

Analysts in the newspaper say that the representatives who led the annexation project, most of whom were from the extreme right, sought through voting to embarrass Netanyahu politically and show him as a leader subject to the dictates of Washington, especially after a series of public American warnings against any unilateral step in the West Bank.

The newspaper indicated that this move “came intentionally during Vance’s visit,” in an internal message stating that “the true right does not wait for the White House’s permission to apply sovereignty.”

The Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post also referred to Netanyahu’s attempts to hold the opposition responsible for the current vote in favor of annexing the West Bank, and stated that his government is working to “create the appropriate conditions for sovereignty at the appropriate time,” indicating initial support for annexation within diplomatic calculations.

She pointed out that the centrist and leftist opposition parties, led by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, voted against the comprehensive annexation project of the occupied West Bank.

Observers believe – according to the newspaper – that what happened perpetuates the division within the Israeli right, and reveals a government contested by an extremist wing pushing towards immediate annexation, and a leadership trying to postpone it in order to preserve American and international cover.