Vance says he was "insulted" by Knesset vote on West Bank annexation
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Vice President JD Vance arrives in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Oct. 21. Photo: Nathan Howard/Pool/Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday before leaving Israel that he was "insulted" by the Knesset vote on annexing the occupied West Bank, which took place while he was visiting the country this week.
Why it matters: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has control over the majority in the Knesset and could have stopped the vote by taking it off the agenda or ordering the members of his party to vote against it. He chose not to in order to avoid a confrontation with his ultranationalist coalition partners.
Driving the news: The Knesset voted on Wednesday in a preliminary reading on two bills that focused on annexation.
- One bill that was put forward by a member of the coalition called for annexation of the entire West Bank. The other was put forward by the opposition and called for annexation of one of the biggest settlements in the West Bank.
- Netanyahu ordered the members of his party not to vote on the bills, but he didn't demand the same from other members of his coalition and didn't take action to stop the vote.
- The two bills passed with votes of some members of the coalition, including one member of Netanyahu's party, as well as votes from more than a dozen members of the opposition, including the head of opposition Yair Lapid.
What they're saying: Speaking with reporters at the airport before departing Israel, Vance was asked about the vote, and he called it "weird."
- He said he was confused by it and that he was told it was only "symbolic" and part of a "political stunt with no practical significance."
- "If it was a political stunt, it was a stupid one, and I take some insult to it," Vance said.
- He stressed that the Trump administration's policy is that "the West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday ahead of his trip to Israel that the Trump administration thinks annexation of the West Bank will be "potentially threatening to the peace deal" in Gaza.
- "So, they're a democracy, they're going to have their votes, people are going to take these positions, but at this time, it's something that especially we think it might be counterproductive. ... We're concerned about anything that threatens to destabilize what we've worked on," he said.
State of play: The Netanyahu government considered annexing large portions of the West Bank in response to the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western countries in September.
- The United Arab Emirates told the Trump administration that Israeli annexations would harm the Abraham Accords.
- Trump held a meeting last month with leaders and senior officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan and asked them to support his plan for ending the war in Gaza.
- The Arab leaders presented Trump with several conditions for supporting his plan, including a commitment that Israel won't annex parts of the West Bank or Gaza.
- Trump made it clear to the leaders that he'd block such a step. Three days later, he told reporters that he won't allow Netanyahu to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Go deeper... Scoop: Democrats press Trump on preventing Israel from annexing West Bank
