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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Plan in Motion - Reports Suggest West Bank Will Be Annexed Soon</h1>November 22, 2024</div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Masafer-Army-678x455.png" alt="" title="Masafer-Army" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="469" height="315" style="margin-right: 25px;">
Israeli forces regularly raid the Masafer Yatta area, in the so-called Area C. (Photo: via Issa Amro TW Page)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh" title="Display all articles for Robert Inlakesh">Robert Inlakesh</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3><span>The de-jure annexation of the West Bank is most likely to be
implemented in what is known as “Area C”, which makes up roughly 60% of
the total territory and contains vast reserves of freshwater, arable
land and other resources.</span></h3>
</blockquote>
<p><span>A recent report published by Pulitzer Prize-winning
investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, indicates that a plan is in
motion for Israel to formally annex the occupied West Bank within the
next weeks. This is said to be part of a broader comprehensive
initiative to kill all hopes for a two-state solution.</span></p>
<p><span>As the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appears to
be cornered by never-ending war fronts in Lebanon and Gaza that he
refuses to give up, his political survival appears to be leaning on
further refining his cabinet into a government of ultra-nationalist
religious fanatics and loyalists.</span></p>
<p><span>When Israel decided to declare war on Lebanon in mid-September,
it did so with a number of pledges to the public, namely the return of
around 100,000 settlers to their homes in northern occupied Palestine
and a defeat of Hezbollah that would force it beyond the Litani River in
southern Lebanon. </span></p>
<p><span>However, the very opposite appears to be the case, as even more
Israelis have fled the north, amidst an escalation of the number of
projectiles fired towards the areas they inhabit.</span></p>
<p><span>The Israeli pivot to Lebanon had come almost immediately after
their military operation, which was targeting the southernmost Gazan
city of Rafah, reached a dead end and had failed to deliver the
victories that Benjamin Netanyahu had set out to achieve on October 7,
2023.</span></p>
<p><span>Having come up short in the Gaza Strip, failing to defeat Hamas
and return their captives by force, a distraction was needed. Quickly
thereafter, Lebanon became the new Rafah. However, the blows that were
achieved against Hezbollah, combined with the some 3,500 people murdered
throughout Lebanon, failed to defeat or even deter the Lebanese
resistance. </span></p>
<p><span>Instead, the Israeli ground forces have dramatically failed to
take any significant portion of southern Lebanon, as Hezbollah continues
to escalate its missile, drone and rocket fire on a daily basis.</span></p>
<p><span>Now, the Israeli Prime Minister, who had dissolved his
emergency war cabinet in June and recently decided to replace his
Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, with an inexperienced loyalist named
Israel Katz, is again poised to register another “achievement”. </span></p>
<p><span>According to anonymous sources in Washington who spoke to
veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, within as short a period as the next
two weeks, the new “achievement” of Benjamin Netanyahu could well be the
de-jure annexation of the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span>Some analysts have posited that Netanyahu is acting alone as a
kind of Dictator, in carrying out such actions. The reality is that
although he must navigate his way through a hostile political minefield
in order to retain his power, he is receiving the full support of
Israel’s political, military and security establishment in the
aggressive steps he is taking. </span></p>
<p><span>That is because he is actively playing politics, while also
implementing the most extreme of Zionist endeavors and using the cover
of his ongoing war in order to get away with it. </span></p>
<p><span>For instance, it would not have been politically possible for
him to commit genocide and mass ethnic cleansing in Gaza, without the
war propaganda that the entire Israeli establishment has weaponized. Nor
would he have received support for a massive attack on Lebanon, without
the situation already having deteriorated dramatically domestically
first.</span></p>
<p><span>Now, in a move that will certainly play into the aspirations of
his Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister, Itamar
Ben Gvir, the annexation of the West Bank appears to be on the agenda. </span></p>
<p><span>However, this is not simply a reflection of the Israeli Premier
being held hostage by such fanatical members of the Religious Zionism
Party alliance but is instead the implementation of a long-desired goal
that Netanyahu had been publicly promising to deliver on since 2019.</span></p>
<p><span>The de-jure annexation of the West Bank is most likely to be
implemented in what is known as “Area C”, which makes up roughly 60% of
the total territory and contains vast reserves of freshwater, arable
land and other resources. It also is home to Israel’s current military
chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, who also lives in a West Bank settlement.</span></p>
<p><span>It was no coincidence that Israel’s richest billionaire, Miriam
Adelson, gifted the campaign of Republican Party leader Donald Trump,
100 million dollars with the quid pro quo that enables Israel to annex
the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span>This kind of money being invested in a candidate does not
happen unless such a policy is already in the works, indicating that
this annexation is not a strategy that has simply popped up out of the
blue.</span></p>
<p><span>Yet, if such a measure is to be implemented, the Israeli
government will again inevitably run into major issues that are going to
arise out of such a scenario. It is difficult to interpret what exactly
will happen on a popular level inside the territory, especially given
the de-facto death sentence that annexation would impose on the
Palestinian Authority.</span></p>
<p><span>Palestinian human rights groups have already been warning that
Israel’s heavily armed settler population may seek to launch a war
against civilians in the territory, with the aim of ethnically cleansing
villages and towns of their populations. If we are to see such a
development, this could spark significant armed rebellion. </span></p>
<p><span>It is also likely that we will eventually see another pivot to
Syria, which will open up a whole other can of worms for Tel Aviv. Each
new front that Israel opens is a new catastrophe for civilians in the
targeted area but also represents another strategic blunder for Israel
in the long term. </span></p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
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<p><br></p>
<p><span><em>– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary
filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He
contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. </em></span></p></div>
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