'Very stupid': Trump, Vance angry over Israeli vote on West Bank annexation; trouble for Netanyahu?

US President Donald Trump warned that Israel would lose “all support” from Washington if it proceeded with annexing the West Bank, after Israeli lawmakers advanced two controversial bills paving the way for sovereignty over the occupied territory.In an interview with Time magazine published this week, Trump said the move was unacceptable and would breach assurances given to Arab nations following the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire. “It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” Trump said, as quoted by The Times of Israel. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”The comments followed a fiery response from Vice President JD Vance, who was in Israel when the Knesset narrowly approved a preliminary vote in favour of annexation — a step viewed as largely symbolic but politically provocative.

“If it was a political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt,” Vance said at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport before departing Israel. “I personally take some insult to it. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.

”The bills, one proposing full annexation of all West Bank settlements and another applying sovereignty to the large settlement city of Ma’ale Adumim, passed in their initial readings by narrow margins.

They were introduced by far-right lawmakers aiming to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposed the move and whose Likud party largely boycotted the vote.Even as annexation enjoys broad support among Israel’s right-wing coalition, Netanyahu has held back amid Washington’s firm opposition. “True sovereignty will be achieved not with a show-off law for the protocol,” Netanyahu’s Likud party said, insisting the government would act “together with our American partners.”US officials have expressed concern that annexation could derail the fragile ceasefire with Hamas. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the move was “potentially threatening to the peace deal” and warned it risked destabilising the situation further.The United Arab Emirates, one of Israel’s closest regional allies, has already described annexation as a “red line.” The Palestinian Authority, which seeks the West Bank for a future independent state, said such a move would destroy any remaining hopes of a two-state solution.