Israel is weighing the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, three Israeli officials said, just as several Western nations move towards recognizing Palestinian statehood this month. It's one of the steps Israel is considering in retaliation for the anticipated recognition of Palestinian statehood by France, Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which would join more than 140 nations that already recognize a Palestinian state. Late Monday, Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot announced plans to recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, saying Belgium had a "duty to prevent any risk of genocide." But he added that it would only be officially enacted "once the last hostage has been released and Hamas no longer governs Palestine." Prevot also announced targeted sanctions, including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an initial discussion on annexation of pasts of the West Bank last week, but the security cabinet has yet to discuss the matter in detail and no decision has been made yet, the officials told CNN on condition of anonymity. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and began establishing Jewish settlements there soon after in defiance of international law. The Palestinians want the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for a future state, a position supported by most of the international community. The Israeli officials said Netanyahu is considering various scales and levels of annexation options, ranging from a limited takeover of several Jewish settlements to a broader approach calling for annexation of Area C, which comprises 60% of the territory. A series of peace agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s known as the Oslo Accords split the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, where Area C falls entirely under Israeli administrative and security control. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar updated US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Israel's annexation plans during a meeting last week, according to an Israeli official. However, other Israeli sources told CNN the plans have not received a green light from the US yet. When asked about Israel's annexation plans, a US State Department spokesperson told CNN on Monday that the agency does not divulge the details of interagency or diplomatic discussions. Two of the officials said one of the main options being considered is annexation of the Jordan Valley – a strip of land on the eastern edge of the West Bank that runs along the Jordan River. The officials said there was a broader Israeli public consensus in favor of such a proposal, adding that Israel's need to use it as a security perimeter would be easier to sell to the international community – and, most importantly, Washington. However, Netanyahu's far-right political allies, ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, as well as the settler leadership, oppose the idea of partial annexation involving specific strips or settlement blocks, and are instead pushing for the maximalist approach – applying Israeli sovereignty over all territory not inhabited by Palestinians. The move would allow Israel to encircle Palestinian population centers, further undermining the viability of a contiguous Palestinian state. Whereas applying sovereignty to territory with Palestinian inhabitants could obligate Israel to provide citizenship or residency status to the roughly 3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank. Annexing any part of the occupied West Bank by applying Israeli sovereignty would violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions and spark an enormous diplomatic backlash. Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. The United Nations reinforced that designation in 2016 with Security Council resolution 2334, which declared that Jewish settlements in occupied territory are a "flagrant violation" of international law and have "no legal validity." Omer Rahamim, CEO of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of West Bank Jewish settlements, told CNN that applying sovereignty should be "a preemptive move ahead of the French recognition of Palestinian statehood. By applying sovereignty, we will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, because it is impossible to establish a state on the sovereign territory of another country." Rahamim said the settler leadership is demanding broad annexation moves, not just within the settlement blocs or the Jordan Valley "because the meaning of applying sovereignty only to several or specific settlement blocs is that the rest of the area would become a terror state – another Gaza in the heart of the country. And we vehemently oppose that." According to one Israeli official, given the expected political and international pressure, Netanyahu is considering a phased and gradual annexation plan, which would start with a selected territory on a pathway toward broader sovereignty. The last time Israel seriously contemplated West Bank annexation in 2020, Netanyahu eventually dropped the plans as part of the Abraham Accords that saw Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Alongside annexation, Israel is contemplating other punitive measures in response to the Palestinian statehood developments, including sanctioning the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank as part of a peace agreement with Israel, or evacuating the Palestinian village of Khan Al-Ahmar. On Friday, the US announced it had decided to deny visas to Palestinian Authority officials arriving at this month's UN General Assembly, where French President Emmanuel Macron plans to announce France's recognition of Palestinian statehood, becoming the first permanent UN Security Council member to do so. An Israeli official said the US decision to deny visas was coordinated with the Israeli government as part of an attempt to prevent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from attending. The US has continued near unwavering support for Israel under President Donald Trump, even as some of Washington's closest allies voice growing alarm over Netanyahu's government and the conduct of the war. Nonetheless Trump has said Israel is losing "the world of public relations." "They're gonna have to get that war over with. But it is hurting Israel," he said in an interview with the Daily Caller that was conducted in the Oval Office on Friday. "There's no question about it. They may be winning the war, but they're not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it is hurting them," he added. — CNN
