The European Commission last week called on Israel to stop its E1 settlement expansion project signed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September that was seen as the death knell for any possibility of a two-state solution in the region.
Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, announced last week that Israel will allow the construction of 764 new houses in three strategically important settlements inside the West Bank, which he said will ensure “continuity of life, security and growth.”
The Israeli Knesset last voted on two separate bills that were seen as symbolic but intended to send the message that Israel has sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, despite the White House’s earlier rejection of such a move, and Vice President JD Vance visited that country at the time of the vote.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House last week that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank—appearing for the first time since his reelection that he may have stood up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Top Israelis warned last month that the more European countries that say they’ll recognize a Palestinian state, the more settlements Israel will build to smash any hopes of one, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, signed an agreement Thursday that he said is the death knell of any two-state solution.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said last week that when European leaders make “noise” about a Palestinian state, the effort turns out to have a “counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want.”
Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., in response to the recent attack in Boulder that left 15 injured, introduced a resolution last week that labels the slogan “Free Palestine” as antisemitic stating it calls for the “destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Mike Huckabee, U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick for Israel ambassador, spoke to All Israel about a 90-minute meeting he attended last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 14 prominent Evangelical and how there was “recognition that there was no support for this continued, failed policy of a two-state solution.”
U.S. President Donald Trump last week doubled down on his plan to force Jordan and Egypt to accept Gazan refugees due to the extensive damage inside the enclave that Israel has bombed to ruins.
Israel will formally annex the West Bank in the “very near future—perhaps in two weeks” to kill any talk of a two-state solution and “convince some in the skeptical Arab world to reconsider financing the planned reconstruction of Gaza,” Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist posted on his Substack, citing a “well-informed Washington official.”