Trump Won’t Say If He’d Allow Israel To Annex The West Bank As Gaza Suffers | EUROtoday

As Israel’s present army marketing campaign towards Palestinians surpasses 14 months, President-elect Donald Trump has averted saying whether or not he would enable the U.S.-supported nation to annex the occupied West Bank underneath his incoming administration.

The Republican spoke to Time Magazine as a part of the outlet’s choice to call him 2024 “Person of the Year” on Thursday. Among different points, the previous and incoming president talked about inheriting a international coverage that features Israel’s U.S.-funded assaults on occupied Palestinian territories and surrounding international locations.

“I don’t want people killed, you know?” Trump, who has beforehand mentioned Israel ought to “finish the problem,” instructed the journal. “I don’t want people from either side killed, and that includes whether it’s Russia, Ukraine, or whether it’s the Palestinians and the Israelis and all of the, you know, different entities that we have in the Middle East.”

Time employees straight requested Trump if he needs to safe a two-state deal as outlined in his first administration’s Peace to Prosperity plan — a place that many leaders within the West, together with President Joe Biden, publicly assist as an answer to the Israeli-Palestinian battle — or if he’d be keen to let Israel annex the occupied West Bank, as far-right politicians have demanded.

“I support whatever solution we can do to get peace. There are other ideas other than two-state, but I support whatever, whatever is necessary to get not just peace, [but] a lasting peace,” he mentioned, not answering the query. “It can’t go on where every five years you end up in tragedy. There are other alternatives.”

The Palestinian territories are made up of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The West Bank is dwelling to many Palestinian households, although they’ve lengthy confronted segregation, compelled evictions and violence by the hands of each Israeli troopers and settlers residing there in defiance of worldwide legislation. Human rights teams have labeled the assaults as acts of apartheid.

For a long time, Israel’s right-wing politicians have advocated for annexing the West Bank, which might quantity to a human rights violation and tank any chance of securing a two-state resolution. The U.S. has largely opposed annexing the West Bank, with the Biden administration warning of penalties to settlers who assault Palestinians within the territory.

Most of the individuals Trump has mentioned he’ll nominate to serve in his administration are extraordinarily pro-Israel — together with Pete Hegseth for protection secretary, Mike Waltz for nationwide safety adviser, Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has voiced assist for the settlement motion and for Israel annexing the West Bank.

“There has never been an American president that has been more helpful in securing and understanding the sovereignty of Israel,” Huckabee instructed Israel Army Radio in November. “I fully expect that to continue.”

Under Trump’s first time period, there have been 33,000 new Israeli housing models within the West Bank, virtually thrice as many as in former President Barack Obama’s second time period. But in 2020, Trump had stopped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from annexing the territory as a part of a normalization deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

When Time employees identified the latter, Trump nonetheless wouldn’t say whether or not he’d enable Israel to annex the West Bank this time round, answering, “We’ll see what happens.”

“I want a long-lasting peace. I’m not saying that’s a very likely scenario, but I want a long-lasting peace, a peace where we don’t have an Oct. 7 in another three years. And there are numerous ways you can do it,” he mentioned earlier than including, “We have some tremendous world problems that we didn’t have when I was president.”

For the previous 12 months, Israel has largely targeted its assaults on Gaza, rendering the territory uninhabitable and killing at the very least 44,000 Palestinians — a possible undercount, in accordance with consultants — after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 individuals and captured 250 in an assault on Oct. 7, 2023, on southern Israel.

Since Israeli troops invaded Gaza, Palestinians within the West Bank have additionally skilled an increase in settler and army violence. Between Oct. 7, 2023, and Nov. 30, 2024, Israelis killed at the very least 770 Palestinians within the territory, in accordance with the United Nations.

An Axios report mentioned Trump instructed Netanyahu that Israel should finish its army marketing campaign in Gaza earlier than he takes workplace. The prime minister, who was additionally in workplace in the course of the first Trump administration, has not given the incoming president any assurances about ending the battle — however Netanyahu probably feels “very confident” and “knows I want it to end,” Trump instructed the journal.

“Do you trust Netanyahu?” Time employees requested Trump.

He answered: “I don’t trust anybody.”