Why J. D. Vance Just Called an Israeli Parliament Vote ‘Stupid’ and an ‘Insult’

4 comments

1. Yair Rosenberg: “J. D. Vance’s visit to Israel this week hit all of the usual beats, at least at first. The vice president met with Israeli politicians and the families of released hostages. He trumpeted the U.S.-Israel alliance and advocated for the continued implementation of President Donald Trump’s Gaza agreement. Everything went according to script—until Vance torched his hosts on the way out.

   “Before boarding Air Force Two, the vice president was asked by a reporter about a vote that had been held the day before in Israel’s Parliament. Hard-right lawmakers from Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition had advanced a measure calling for Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, which Palestinians claim for their future state. The measure was a farce—it did not change Israel’s policy on the ground, and half of the Knesset’s members did not even participate in the vote. But the legislation was a symbolic slap in the face to the president of the United States. Last month, Trump’s Arab allies had made clear that annexation would risk unraveling the Abraham Accords, and so the president had promised in the Oval Office that ‘I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.’ The message, it seemed, had not gotten through.

   “Asked about the Knesset vote on the tarmac, Vance acknowledged that it was symbolic, but he was not amused. ‘If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it,’ he said. ‘The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy.’ That same day, Time published an interview with Trump in which the president was asked about annexation. ‘It won’t happen, because I gave my word to the Arab countries,’ he replied. ‘Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.’ Netanyahu didn’t take long to shift into damage-control mode. He put out a statement that falsely attributed the parliamentary vote to the opposition, and pledged that his party, Likud, would not advance the legislation.

   “This dustup will not harm the U.S.-Israel relationship in the near term, but it portends more consequential conflict to come. That’s because the Israeli hard right—a crucial and dominant component of Netanyahu’s coalition—is at war with Trump’s regional agenda, and its aspirations are incommensurate with the president’s ambitions. Previously, the Trump administration was divided between accordists, including the envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who were more aligned with the Gulf states, and annexationists, such as Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who were more sympathetic to the Israeli right. But in recent weeks, the president has made his decision: The accordists have won in a rout, and that outcome has implications well beyond the West Bank.

   “As Israel’s settler right holds power over Netanyahu, it will continue to threaten the Trump administration’s agenda. This dynamic may be more of a problem for Netanyahu than for Trump, however.”

   Read more: [https://theatln.tc/HMHKsVPS](https://theatln.tc/HMHKsVPS) 

2. I say this as someone who despises the Trump admin, but if they successfully isolate the Israeli far-right, it may actually be one of the greatest master strokes of foreign policy in modern history.

3. Thing is that attempts to annex the West Bank would inevitably drive even more Palestinians out of Israel, which Egypt and Jordan can’t possibly accommodate because they’re already overwhelmed by refugees and water shortages.

   They would quite literally have to choose between forcibly redirecting Palestinians elsewhere and military intervention against the Israeli government, destabilizing the entire region. The Arab countries aren’t joking around that Israel going into the West Bank would doom the Abraham Accords.

4. He’s actually right and I never say that.

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