Vice President JD Vance expressed alarm on Thursday about the Israeli legislature’s vote that would claim sovereignty over swaths of the West Bank, calling the move an “insult” to the Trump administration because it could threaten peace in the region.
Before departing for the United States at the end of his two-day trip to the Jewish state, Vance denounced the Knesset’s vote as a “very stupid political stunt.”
“I personally take some insult to it,” he said at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”
“That will continue to be our policy, and if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it,” the vice president added.
On Wednesday, the Knesset passed two preliminary bills that assert “the State of Israel will apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlement areas in Judea and Samaria, in order to establish the status of these areas as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel.” The legislation was put up for a vote despite opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It must still be approved in additional votes, but the bills may endanger the fragile nature of the Gaza peace deal that was struck earlier this month.
Netanyahu also criticized the lawmakers for putting the vote up.
“The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel,” the prime minister said. “The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset.”
When asked about the state of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Vance said both sides are largely respecting the terms of the agreement.
“There are exceptions,” he told reporters. “There are little exceptions that break out here and there. That would be expected when these parties have been at war for two years. But so far, the ceasefire is actually holding, the peace is actually holding, and now we’re trying to figure out how to make it stick over the long term.”
Accusations of ceasefire violations have been lobbed at both sides amid reports of clashes in Gaza. Israel said at least two of its soldiers were killed in Rafah, while Hamas said the Israeli military was still targeting Palestinians in airstrikes.
The Trump administration, as a whole, has been opposed to Israeli annexation of the West Bank, a move that could stoke outrage from Israel’s Arab neighbors.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized the Knesset’s vote on Wednesday.
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“They passed a vote in the Knesset, but the president has made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing for Israel Wednesday night. “We think there’s potential for [it to be even] threatening to the peace deal.”
Rubio is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Thursday as Vance returns home.
