Israel parliament's West Bank annexation vote stupid, personal insult: US VP Vance

JERUSALEM: US Vice President JD Vance criticised on Thursday a vote in Israel's parliament the previous day about the annexation of the occupied West Bank, saying it amounted to an “insult” and went against the Trump administration policies.

Hard-liners in the Israeli parliament had narrowly passed a symbolic preliminary vote in support of annexing the West Bank—an apparent attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while Vance was still in the country.

The bill, which required only a simple majority of lawmakers present in the house on Wednesday, passed with a 25-24 vote. But it was unlikely to pass multiple rounds of voting to become law or win a majority in the 120-seat parliament. Netanyahu, who is opposed to it, also has tools to delay or defeat it.

On the tarmac of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport before departing Israel, Vance said that if the Knesset's vote was a “political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.”

“I personally take some insult to it,” Vance said. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

Netanyahu is struggling to stave off early elections as cracks between factions in the right-wing parties, some of whom were upset over the ceasefire and the security sacrifices it required of Israel, grow more apparent.

While many members of Netanyahu's coalition, including the Likud, support annexation, they have backed off those calls since US President Donald Trump said last month that he opposes such a move.

The United Arab Emirates, a key US and Israeli ally in the push for peace in Gaza, has said any annexation by Israel would be a “red line.”

Israeli annexation of the West Bank would all but bury hopes for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians—the outcome supported by most of the world.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future independent state.