Statehood For Peace & Freedom
How can Palestinian statehood bring peace?
In order to solve a problem one must correctly identify the problem.
Israel and the U.S. has mischaracterized Palestinians as a "problem" to be solved by state-sponsored violence, murder, starvation, IDF kidnappings, occupation, mass imprisonment of two million Palestinians from cradle-to-grave and Israeli theft of Palestinian land.
The seminal and pivotal lie that Israel has used to justify their war crimes, land theft, state-sponsored terrorism is the lie: "Hamas hates Jews and won't stop attacking us Jews until they kill all the Jews, therefore we must free the "Good Palestinians" by killing all the "Bad Palestinians," (Hamas) to defend the State of Israel.
Netanyahu demands that Hamas disarm themselves, turn in their guns and live another 75 years under US-backed Israeli mass imprisonment from cradle-to-grave.
Netanyahu is lying when he and others claim that "Good Palestinians" want to live free of Hamas and need Israel to save us "Good Palestinians" from the "Bad Palestinians."
Netanyahu wants the world to believe that Palestinians want to live under another 75 years of Israeli occupation, mass imprisonment, IDF kidnappings, state-sponsored poverty and forced starvation, military attack operations, military blockades from the land, sea and air.
And what makes a "Bad Palestinian" according to Israeli officials?
Any Palestinian who takes up arms to fight for Palestinian freedom from US-backed Israeli occupation.
PROBLEM IS, Netanyahu, Israeli officials and a majority of Israelis do not believe in, follow, respect or comply with international law, the Geneva Conventions and basic human rights.
Netanyahu has repeatedly publicly stated that Israel will never comply with U.N. Resolution 242 under any circumstances.
On June 4, 1967 Israel invaded the Palestinian territories and Syria and began a 75 year ongoing illegal military occupation.
On November 22, 1967 when the Oakland Raiders defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 44-22, the world community came together at the United Nations to vote on a resolution my friend Professor Francis Boyle wrote, known as U.N. Res. 242, ordering Israel to fully withdraw from the Palestinian territories and to recognize Palestinians Right of Return to their homeland that Israel sits on.
To this day Israel has never complied with U.N. Res. 242, nor has Israel ever complied with an additional 76 U.N. resolutions Israel remains in violation of as of today.
Netanyahu, Israeli officials and a majority of Israelis do not believe the Palestinian people have a right to exist on Palestinian land; nor do Israelis recognize the legal right of a civilian population to form and maintain armed resistance groups.
Why was this Geneva necessary?
To give legal lawful authority to any civilian population who is invaded by an Occupying Power to form and maintain armed resistance groups to evict the Occupying Power from the Occupied.
PROBLEM IS, Netanyahu and Israeli officials will never support statehood for the Palestinian people.
The U.S. and Israel never present the US-backed Israel occupation and mass imprisonment as unlawful and unethical; but presents the US-backed Occupation as legal, routine and necessary.
The U.S. and Israel has never recognized Palestinians' right to exist, right to land ownership, right to fight for freedom from Occupation and mass imprisonment.
THE SOLUTION IS for the U.S. to finally vote for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council.
THE SOLUTION IS for the White House to realize that Israel will never, ever agree to Palestinian statehood - not because Israel wants to live side-by-side in peace with Palestinians, but because a majority of Israelis religiously believe that Palestinians are simply troublemaking squatters living on Jewish land in need of eviction and expulsion; and for some Israelis, in need of extermination.
The Problem and The Solution
Israeli police beat and arrest worshippers during Ramadan on September 17, 2023:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was charged with felony bribery, fraud and corruption on November 21, 2019 and on November 28, 2019 Netanyahu dispatched 134 armed settlers to the al Aqsa mosque ("Swatting the Hornet's Nest") to try to start a new conflict with Hamas so Netanyahu could create a longterm distraction from his criminal charges and the criminal proceedings before him.
In fact, Netanyahu kept swatting the hornet's nest while Hamas kept warning Netanyahu he must stop the al Aqsa mosque raids - or else!
For over two years Netanyahu kept swatting the hornet's nest yet Hamas took no military action, but kept warning Netanyahu to stop the mosque raids and arrests.
Then sometime in 2022 Hamas created an animated video of their attack plans and sent it to Netanyahu and told Netanyahu if you don't stop the mosque raids, here's what we're going to do.
Hamas provided Netanyahu their warning in book form and in a Hamas video.
Then on September 17, 2023 - just about 21 days before October 7, 2023, Netanyahu dispatched Israeli police and armed settlers once again to the al Aqsa Mosque to beat, hogtie and arrest worshippers.
Thirty years after it was founded, Hamas is replacing its anti-Semitic and violent charter with a comprehensively revised document modifying several of its extreme and rejectionist positions.
While several of these strategic changes are not completely new - they have at times been talked about by Hamas leaders, but later retracted or contradicted - expressly including them in its charter constitutes something quite unprecedented.
No matter what immediate effect these changes will have on Hamas's behaviour, from a broader strategic perspective, this is a big deal.
The main reason for this is because the internal process required within Hamas to get all its different parts to unite and ratify these changes is simply enormous.
The resolve and energy necessary to carry through this type of internal process is in itself proof of the importance attached to this change within Hamas.
Moreover, the actual group of individuals who have initiated and pushed through this enterprise have put their future in the organisation at stake, as well as their lives if it were to fail.
To stand up in one of Hamas's shura councils, surrounded by extremists, and argue that the time has come to depart from the organisation's original plan as set out by its founding fathers cannot have been easy.
To most members, this idea at first glance would have appeared tantamount to surrender - and to the more conservative ones, to heresy.
Moving Hamas from its position of utter rejection of Israel to achieving a consensus about the necessity for change, this group of individuals have engaged in several years of contentious internal debate.
The process has also included extensive secret communication between Hamas's different organisational units in all of its four physically separated parts: Gaza, the West Bank, the prisons and the diaspora.
At numerous times, Hamas's leadership has circulated various drafts of the document for comments, amendments and reservations from all of the different parts and units.
In addition to the difficult nature of the process in itself, the actual content of these changes also underlines the magnitude of all this.
The new charter will include redresses of several of the group's most controversial standpoints, including:
A Palestinian state - Hamas will now agree on a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
Hamas will also say that it backs any peace agreement that can be reached between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, if it can be approved in a popular referendum.
Armed struggle - As opposed to its former calls for the indiscriminate use of violence, Hamas will now state that, while it still considers the use of force to be its legitimate right, its focus will instead be on non-violent and popular resistance activities.
Non-Muslims - Hamas's new charter will relate to other religions, Judaism and Christianity in particular, in more conciliatory language.
As opposed to the explicitly anti-Semitic references in the former document, Hamas will now say that religious minorities constitute an integral component of Palestinian society.
Regarding Jews, the document will specify that Hamas's struggle concerns only those individuals who operate in and have settled beyond pre-1967 lines.
Relations with other Islamic organizations - Hamas will state that it does not have any organizational ties to other Islamic organizations.
Due to its former close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, this statement marks a new chapter in the history of Hamas.
For now, let us nevertheless recognize what has just happened. For the first time ever, the enemy just blinked.
Hamas Presents New Charter Supporting Palestinian State Along 1967 Borders (Haaretz May 2017)
Vowing to continue to strive to liberate all of Palestinian lands, Hamas says fight is with Zionism, not Jews | Hosting Doha hotel canceled, prompting delays | Israel blasted new charter as smoke screen for group's real intentions.
In 2017 hardly anyone noticed Hamas drastic policy change, but Israel's Haaretz newspaper noticed and wrote about the charter change:
After some initial delays, Hamas presented its new charter on Monday, as Israel was marking its Independence Day.
As was expected, Hamas' new charter accepts the possibility of a Palestinian state along the 1967 "Green Line" border, considered by some a moderation of the Gaza group's position.
Israel responded to the charter even before Hamas' press conference, saying it did not represent any real change by the Gaza group.
Hamas was expected to present the charter at the Intercontinental hotel in the Qatari capital of Doha, but the hotel canceled, prompting Hamas to scramble to find an alternative location, eventually holding the event at the Doha Sheraton.
Hamas' leader in exile, Khaled Meshal, said at the press conferences that "Hamas objects to any plan offering an alternative homeland" for the Palestinians.
He said the group "will not give up any parcel of Palestinian land and strives to liberate all of the Palestinian lands."
However, in a sign of alleged moderation, he said "Hamas is willing to negotiate a sovereign and independent state with Jerusalem as its capital" as the basis for a deal with Israel.
Meshal also said that "Hamas' struggle is not with Jews or their faith, but is a struggle against Zionism and its agressions."
The group also vowed "not to recognize the Zionist entity," saying that "opposition to the occupation through any means is a basic right that includes an armed struggle."
He also said the group would not give up on the right of return for Palestinians who fled or were exiled when Israel was established in 1948, a key point of contention in negotiations for Israelis and Palestinians.
New charter
Ahead of the charter's publication Hamas sources had in recent weeks reported its main provisions. These provisions, they say, summarize positions enunciated throughout the years by senior Hamas officials, including the group’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
The document, which contains 11 chapters with 41 articles, was also expected to effectively declare Hamas’ independence from its parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
It does not mention any affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood and asserts that Hamas, as a Palestinian liberation movement, will not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Ismail Haniyeh, the Gaza-based deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, said at an event in the Strip on Sunday that “the new document will undermine neither our principles nor our strategy.
Jerusalem, the right of return, Palestinian unity and the resistance forces are fundamental principles. The changes relate to regional developments, and suit the era.”
Hamas sources said the organization decided to officially unveil the document now because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and his planned White House meeting later this week with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Haaretz: The Enemy Just Blinked: Why Hamas's New Charter Is a Big Deal - March 2017
The revisions to Hamas’ infamously anti-Semitic and pro-violence founding document is unprecedented evidence that even an extremist organization is capable of change.
Trump is doing the same thing Biden did: break federal law to send US arms to Israel, despite Israel using our American weapons in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity.
It is a federal crime for the U.S. Government, any U.S. President, any U.S. senator and Congressperson to send U.S. arms to any government who utilizes our American provided weapons in the commission of war crimes or in any offensive capacity whatsoever.
Israeli soldiers fly over and stand on Palestinian soil and kill Palestinians with weapons MADE-IN-THE-USA, yet Israel claims the IDF is using American weapons in a "defensive capacity only." Bullshit.
The truth is Israel will never agree or support Palestinian statehood precisely because Netanyahu and a majority of Israelis support the expansion of the state of Israel and their "Greater Israel" national goal of stealing every inch of Palestinian land with no regard for international law, human rights, or Palestinians right to be free of Israeli occupation, mass imprisonment, air, land and sea blockades and land theft.
Therefore if President Trump wants to "win a nobel Peace Prize" then he can EARN a Nobel Peace Prize by voting for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council.
Problem is Donald Trump has no idea what to say when Netanyahu leans on Trump and says, "You can't let them have statehood - Hamas will destroy the State of Israel because Hamas hates Jews and will never stop attacking and killing Jews.
Of course Netanyahu ignores Hamas offer of permanent peace between Israel and Palestinians based on statehood on the pre-invasion 1967 borders.
Netanyahu and Israel has consistently ignored and violated U.N. Res. 242 ordering Israel to fully withdraw to the pre-invasion 1967 borders and for Israel to recognize Palestinians Right of Return to their homeland.
If President Trump does not vote for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council, Netanyahu and Israel will continue to illegally occupy the Palestinian territories, will continue to mass murder Palestinian men, women, children and babies, will continue to mass imprison over two million Palestinians; will continue to kidnap Palestinians from their homes and hold them hostage in Israeli custody, and will continue to act to illegally annex Gaza and the West Bank.
If President Trump does not vote for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council, Netanyahu and Israel will continue to control Palestinian borders, control and restrict the flow of goods, food and aid in and out of Gaza, continue to starve and shoot Palestinians to death till the end of Trump's second term and beyond 2028, thanks to the DNC, Barack Obama and his DNC candidates.
Recognize the fact that literally every person near Trump is telling him to never vote for Palestinian statehood and never stop arming Israel.
Literally every Republican Senator, every Trump adviser and aide are telling Trump to never vote for Palestinian statehood.
AIPAC has already told Trump that he cannot vote for statehood at the U.N. Security Council because he would be responsible for the destruction of the State of Israel.
Trump's ego would have to buck the Ziosystem to vote for Palestinan statehood.
Does Trump have enough ego power to buck the Ziosystem long enough to vote for Palestinian statehood?
The short answer is yes, if Trump sees voting for Palestinian statehood as his ticket to winning a Nobel Peace Prize; otherwise Trump is simply Biden 2.0.
If Trump Is Ever To Be Known as "The Great Peacemaker" Trump Must Vote For Palestinian Statehood.
Every American should urge Trump to ignore Netanyahu and vote for Palestinian statehood at the U.N. Security Council.
https://progressives.substack.com/p/if-trump-is-ever-to-be-known-as-the
Finally the dam burst on October 7, 2023 as Hamas warned Netanyahu it would if Netanyahu didn't stop the al Aqsa mosque raids.
You never hear about Netanyahu swatting the hornet's nest in the western media, nor do you hear what Hamas representatives and leaders actually say themselves.
Since NAKBA 1948 reporters have asked Palestinian leaders, Why do you hate Jews?
The answer has always been the same: Palestinians don't hate Jews because they're Jews, they hate anyone killing our people and stealing our land.
Hamas leader Sinwar was asked in interviews, Why does Hamas attack Jews? Why do you hate Jews?
Sinwar replied that Hamas does not attack Jews because they are Jews; religion has nothing to do with it. Hamas attacks Israeli Jews because Israeli Jews kill our people and steal our land.
In 2017 Hamas drastically changed their charter from the total destruction of the State of Israel to a policy of non-violent, peaceful co-existence based on Palestinian statehood on the pre-invasion 1967 borders that were in place the day before Israel invaded Palestine on June 5, 1967.
Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian worshippers at Bab as-Silsila, one of the main entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local sources.
Israeli forces imposed tight security measures on Sunday, ejecting worshippers from Al-Aqsa Mosque and intensifying their presence around it, denying access to any Palestinian below the age of 50 to clear the way for Israeli settlers on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
In celebration of Rosh Hashanah, hundreds of ultranationalist Israelis made an incursion into the Al-Aqsa courtyard through the Morocco Gate under the protection of Israeli troops, according to news outlet Al-Mayadeen.
VIDEO: Israeli police beat and arrest worshippers during Ramadan on September 17, 2023;
21 DAYS PRIOR TO OCTOBER 7, 2023 ATTACK.
Since the Trump-imposed ceasefire and "End of War" commenced Netanyahu has managed to continue killing a smaller number of Palestinians each and every day.
Netanyahu was killing 60-120 or more Palestinians daily, but now is down to about 10 killed daily.
We all know that Netanyahu is criminally insane, a self-serving, mass murdering lunatic racist who can never drink enough Palestinian blood because Netanyahu views Palestinians as trrouble-making squatters living on Jewish land.
What has happened recently is something that hasn't happened before:
A U.S. President's staff met with Hamas directly and discussed the situation moving forward.
Netanyahu's worst nightmare is for the Americans to communicate privately and directly with Hamas, especially in the case of Mr. Let's Make A Deal, Donald Trump.
Last week, Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Hamas leader Abu (whom Netanyahu tried to kill in Qatar recently, but failed) met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Egypt, where Witkoff and Kushner found out some very important things about Hamas and their position; and undoubtedly found out that Benjamin Netanyahu has been filling Trump, Witkoff and Kushner's heads full of lies about Hamas.
So why is Trump seemingly so dedicated to bring final reesolution and Peace between the Palestinians and Israelis?
Is it because he is a humanitarian?
Or is it because Arabs have long, long money and the Israelis are running a busted Kool-Aid stand?
Does it have anything to do with Arabs building an international Silk Road superhighway and massive pipelines from China to Europe by way of the Middle East?
Donald Trump isn't happy with Park Avenue money - he wants Arab league money.
Trump has been closely listening to Arab leaders and their statehood imperative for rebuilding Gaza, and tuning out Benjamin Netanyahu and Israelis.
Here's what Trump has been doing to Netanyahu:
Hamas Presents New Charter Supporting Palestinian State Along 1967 Borders (Haaretz May 2017)
Vowing to continue to strive to liberate all of Palestinian lands, Hamas says fight is with Zionism, not Jews
Hamas official says group would lay down its arms if an independent Palestinian state is established
(AP) April 25, 2024
A top Hamas political official told The Associated Press the Islamic militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.
What About Hamas? What About Israeli Expansionism?
What About Israel Stealing Palestinian Land since NAKBA 1948?
Hamas was formed in the eighties as a direct result of Israel military expansionism by force.
Since the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, Israelis have vastly expanded the size and borders of the State of Israel.
How do you think Israelis did it?
They did it by inciting conflict, inciting war, believing and knowing that Israel's superior military force would easily crush effectively defenseless Palestinian resistance forces.
Israelis always wanted more war with Palestinians because IDF forces would capture more Palestinian land each time Israel launched an IDF military operation.
So how did Israelis incite war with Palestinians?
By "SWATTING THE HORNET'S NEST."
What the hell is "Swatting the Hornet's Nest?"
"Swatting the Hornet's Nest" is an old Israeli technique used by virtually every Israeli Prime Minister, including Ariel Sharon, to incite war with Palestinians - Hamas in particular.
"Swatting the Hornet's Nest" is when an Israeli PM orders Israeli police (and allows settlers) to go to the al Aqsa mosque to beat, hogtie and arrest worshippers during prayer service.
Hamas specifically stated in their Operation al Aqsa Flood material that this operation was retribution for Israel's mosque raids, beatings and arrests AND for the IDF kidnapping thousands of Palestinians and holding them hostage.
This is not an exaggeration, but a well-known fact and is on video:
You may have never heard of these things because CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FOXNEWS are all AIPAC-related news organizations who are complicit in US-backed Israeli war crimes, mass murder, mass starvation, illegal occupation and mass imprisonment of two million Palestinians.
"Statehood for Peace and Freedom" means if Trump and the U.S. vote for statehood at the U.N. Security Council, permanent peace between Israelis and Palestinians can happen.
Freedom refers to Palestinian freedom from US-backed Israeli Occupation, murder, IDF kidnappings, state-sponsored poverty and starvation, regular Israeli military attacks and operations and Israeli mass imprisonment of two million Palestinians.
Palestinian freedom means Palestinian statehood on Palestine's June 1967 borders.
Palestinian freedom means a true independent, sovereign State of Palestine in control of their own borders and destiny.
Israeli freedom means Israeli statehood on Israel's June 1967 borders.
Israeli freedom means the Israeli goverment agreeing to a permanent peace deal that features bi-lateral security guarantees of no more cross border attacks by air or by ground.
Israeli freedom means an Israel that no longer lives under the threat of rocket attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran because:
*Israel would no longer be committing war crimes against the Palestinian people;
*Israel would no longer illegally occupy the Palestinian territories and no longer blockade Gaza by land, sea and air.
*Israel would no longer mass imprison two million Palestinians behind giant concrete walls from cradle to grave.
*Israel would no longer be able to starve Palestinians to death, cut off their electricity and water; cut off their food and aid supply.
Since 2017 Hamas has offered to disband Hamas and all Palestinian resistance groups in exchange for statehood on the pre-invasion 1967 borders.
In 2017 Hamas changed their original charter from the "total destruction of the State of Israel" to a policy of peaceful co-existence based on Palestinian statehood on the June 4, 1967 borders.
Since 2017 Western media has worked hard to hide from the West the fact that Hamas was now seeking permanent peace based on statehood and no longer sought the total destruction of the State of Israel.
Since October 7 Hamas has repeated their offer of permanent peace based on Palestinian statehood, offering to completely disband Hamas in exchange for statehood.
President Trump Bringing Peace to the Middle East?
Trump bullies Netanyahu For Peace, Profit and Oil
World leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pose for a family photo, at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.
J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Israel
Seemingly putting the kibosh on the Israeli right’s dream of applying sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, US President Donald Trump has said Israel would lose “all support” from the United States if it tried to move ahead with annexation.
The comments published Thursday by Time magazine were made by Trump during an October 15 interview, prior to the Knesset’s passage on Wednesday, in a preliminary reading and against the prime minister’s wishes, of a bill that would apply Israeli sovereignty to all West Bank settlements. Underlining the administration’s lack of patience for such efforts, Trump’s deputy JD Vance said Thursday as he departed Israel that the previous day’s vote had offended him and was “very stupid.”
“It won’t happen. It won’t happen,” Trump told Time, referring to annexation. “It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
Some of those “exceptions” have been seen as quite severe by Israel. On Sunday, Palestinian gunmen launched an attack on Israeli forces in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip, killing two soldiers and wounding several. This prompted the Israel Defense Forces to launch heavy strikes for several hours in response. The IDF said the attack was “a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
Hamas is also still holding the remains of 13 slain hostages in Gaza, though it has handed over 15.
“Our message is — do whatever you can to work with us to make this peace stick,” Vance said of his message to Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) holds a press conference with US Vice President JD Vance at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
Citing American and Israeli officials familiar with the discussions, Channel 12 news said Vance urged Netanyahu on Wednesday to give Washington time to roll out the peace plan, to which the premier responded by showing a readiness to cooperate in the next phases.
In a separate report, however, the network said that Netanyahu outlined several red lines to the US in recent days, including absolute opposition to any Turkish presence in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas playing a governing role there after the war. He is also said to have insisted that a full IDF withdrawal would only take place after Hamas is fully disarmed and the Strip demilitarized.
US Vice President JD Vance holds a press conference in Israel alongside US Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper and Jared Kushner, in Kiryat Gat, on October 21, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A new international security force “is now going to take the lead in disarming Hamas” in Gaza, Vance said at the airport.
“That’s going to take some time, and it’s going to depend a lot on the composition of that force,” he continued. “There are certain countries who I expect will be quite good at it, and there are other countries that can play a role but I don’t think are going to be quite as useful. But a lot of that depends on which forces actually come to bear and how we’re actually able to implement phase two of the peace plan.
“We can always pick up the phone and call Hamas, at least through an intermediary, when we want to,” said Vance when asked if there have been recent conversations with the terror group. “But most of our communication has been with our Gulf Arab friends and, of course, with the Israelis about what this international security force is going to look like. That is not primarily a Hamas conversation. That’s a conversation between us, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Qataris, and other folks who are going to be involved in this in one form or another.”
Earlier on Thursday, Defense Minister Israel Katz told Vance that Israel is “committed to bringing back all the fallen hostages, to disarming Hamas, and to ensuring a better future for the region,” according to his office.
Vance said he was told it was a “political stunt” and “purely symbolic,” but that, if so, it was a “very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it.”
“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance said. “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.”
Though the statement quickly dominated headlines in Israel, it did not appear to be a central message Vance was looking to convey at the end of his trip, and he made it in response to a question on the matter after already concluding a short press conference on the tarmac.
A picture taken from the E1 corridor, a sensitive area of the West Bank, looking eastward towards the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim with the Jordan Valley in the background, June 30, 2020. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Previous visits to Israel by American vice presidents have also been marred by West Bank developments that Netanyahu failed to control. In 2010, the Interior Ministry approved the construction of 1,600 new apartments in East Jerusalem during a visit by then-vice president Joe Biden that had been quite friendly, angering the US administration at the time.
Vance wasn’t the first senior US official to publicly criticize the vote. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday night that the Knesset’s move toward annexing the West Bank could threaten Trump’s plan to end the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
“They passed a vote in the Knesset, but the president has made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now,” Rubio told reporters before taking off for Israel. “We think there’s potential for [it to be] threatening to the peace deal.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, October 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
All but one Likud lawmaker boycotted the Knesset votes on annexation: MK Yuli Edelstein broke ranks to vote in favor, casting a decisive vote and helping the bill on annexation of all settlements scrape by at 25-24.
After the criticism from Vance, Netanyahu’s office said the vote “was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vance’s visit to Israel.”
“The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset,” the PMO said in a statement sent out in English. “Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere.”
The broader of the two bills was sponsored by far-right MK Avi Maoz of the one-man Noam party — who was part of the coalition until he left earlier this year.
The bill was supported by the coalition’s far-right Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism parties.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu’s Likud party dismissed the bills as “trolling” by the opposition “aimed at damaging our relations with the US and Israel’s great achievements in the campaign” in Gaza.
“We strengthen settlement every day with actions, budgets, construction, industry, and not with words,” the party said.
A session at the assembly hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 22, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
After Vance’s statement, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the vote “a political move of the opposition to try to embarrass the government during the visit of Vice President JD Vance.”
“The government hadn’t participated in the vote, and that demonstrates our approach,” he stressed.
The issue is tricky for Netanyahu, whose hard-right base is broadly supportive of annexation. Many in Netanyahu’s coalition have been loudly calling to advance annexation as a response to the recognition of a Palestinian state by Western powers last month.
In early September, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly called for the annexation of 82 percent of the West Bank, even as Arab nations in the region warned that such a move would spell the end of Israel’s integration into the Middle East.
Other senior members of the cabinet, including Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defense Minister Israel Katz, have also endorsed annexation.
This summer, the Knesset overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding motion in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.
Mike Huckabee takes questions from the media, prior to laying a brick at a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
Kan news reported last week that the Prime Minister’s Office was concerned that any efforts to annex the West Bank could spark a diplomatic crisis with Washington.
Without US support, Israel is much less likely to go ahead with the move, which would at any rate have diminished significance without backing from the world’s leading superpower, and which would doubtlessly spark massive international backlash.
Palestinians in Gaza ‘don’t have a leader’
In his Time interview, Trump said that he would visit the Gaza Strip at some point.
“They don’t have a leader right now, at least a visible leader, and they don’t really want to, because every one of those leaders has been shot and killed. It’s not a hot job,” said Trump.
Asked about Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as the potential leader, with the PA retaking control of Gaza, Trump said: “I’ve always found him reasonable, but he’s probably not… I’d really have to find out. I’d have to seek it out, but so it would be a little bit early to make an opinion, but at some point I’ll have an opinion.”
US President Donald Trump meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Oct. 13, 2025, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (YouTube screenshot)
Trump also said on the Gaza ceasefire: “I said to Bibi, ‘Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world.'”
The US president continued, “You know, I stopped him, because he would have just kept going. It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. And I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped, it was amazing.”
He called Israel’s attempted strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar a “mistake” that was “terrible,” but said it created momentum toward the deal.
“And when he made that one tactical mistake, the one on Qatar, and that was terrible, but actually, and I actually told the emir, this was one of the things that brought us all together, because it was so out of joint that it sort of got everybody to do what they have to do.”
Trump also said he was dealing with the issue of imprisoned political leader Marwan Barghouti, and would make a decision on whether he wants Israel to free the convicted terrorist, who is seen as a highly popular potential leader by Palestinians.
Hamas ‘respecting ceasefire’
Asked about the ceasefire in Gaza, Vance said on Thursday that “right now, we can say with confidence that Israel is respecting the ceasefire, Hamas is respecting the ceasefire.”
“There are exceptions,” said Vance. “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.”
Family and friends attend the funeral ceremony of slain hostage Tamir Adar at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 23, 2025. (Jonatan Shaul/Flash90)
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US Vice President JD Vance waves as he boards Air Force Two en route to Washington, DC, at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on October 23, 2025. (Nathan HOWARD / POOL / AFP)
Trump had already ruled out the idea last month, saying, “I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.” But the comments published Thursday were his most stern warning yet that he would not tolerate the move.
Also in the Time interview, Trump said he’d made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop the war in Gaza, and that it might have continued “for years” otherwise. He also said he believed Israel and Saudi Arabia would normalize ties by the end of the year.
“They had a Gaza problem and they had an Iran problem. Now they don’t have those two problems,” he said of Saudi Arabia. He did not offer any further details on how this would be achieved, given Riyadh’s insistence that normalization was directly tied to Palestinian statehood, a nonstarter for Israel.
A ‘weird’ vote
The two bills passed by the Knesset on Wednesday — one that would annex all West Bank settlements and another, more limited one that would annex one major city-settlement, Maale Adumin — were presented by right-wing opposition figures, amid opposition from Netanyahu and most of his Likud party. They passed due to support from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners and the abstention of most Likud MKs, who were loath to actively vote against a bill popular with their base.
The legislation now goes to committee for deliberations and revisions, and must pass three more votes in the Knesset to become law — a highly unlikely eventuality given Trump’s unequivocal veto.
Speaking at Ben Gurion Airport before taking off on Thursday at the end of a warm two-day visit, Vice President Vance struck a decidedly sour note, calling the Knesset vote “weird” and adding that he was “sort of confused by that.”
"Greater Israel" Project
A majority of Israeli Jews believe that Jews own all the land "from the river to the sea" and support Israeli expansionism they call the Greater Israel project.
This is state-sponsored land theft literally on a Biblical scale.
A majority of Israelis believe that Israel literally owns all the Arab and Muslim land "from the river to the sea" and that Palestinians are simply troublemaking squatters living on Jewish land and borrowed time.
A majority of Israelis polled OPPOSE Palestinian statehood, OPPOSE ending the Occupation, OPPOSE sending food and aid into Gaza and support a "Jews Only" apartheid state.
Israeli government officials are actually atheist Zionist Supremacists posing as Jews who practice Judaism.
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