Author: Steven A. Cook
Org./Publisher: Foreign Policy
Pub. Date/Place: May 8, 2020/USA
Type of Literature: Policy analysis
Word Count: 1360
Keywords: United States, Sharon, Israeli Annexation
Brief:
The article focuses on the position of the United States in Israel’s planned illegal annexation of land in the West Bank. It is a long-term and planned project in which the Israeli government is investing in development and infrastructure to link Israeli cities to illegal settler towns, such as Ofra near Nablus. The author argues that in the 1990s during Yitzhak Rabin’s rule the peace seemed possible, the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel’s right to exist, and Israelis as well as Americans routinely engaged in diplomacy with Palestinian leaders. But the situation changed in 1996 when Netanyahu came in power as prime minister and both Israel and the United States started detaching themselves from reality. The other view is that a Biden win in the coming US Presidential election would apparently accomplish this through dialogue, and limit US diplomatic support to Israel in the face of international condemnation over annexation and to condition aid to Israel. The author is pessimistic that Israel will not go for annexation of parts of the West Bank because of the previous experience of Sharon. The US cannot forestall the annexation, and they are unlikely to work given the way Israelis have defined the stakes—life or death. The author concludes that when the time comes the US will accommodate itself to annexation of certain parts of the West Bank with Israeli promises not to go any further and to recommit to the peace process.
By: Taqwa Kmeil, CIGA Research Assistant
