US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that he believes Judea and Samaria belong to Israel following US President Donald Trump’s statements that he will not allow Israel to annex those areas.
“I believe that Judea and Samaria are the traditional lands that belong to Israel. But there are a lot of geopolitical forces at play here. I think there’s still a lot to resolve, and we will have to see how this develops,” Johnson told Tony Perkins on the ‘This Week on Capitol Hill’ podcast today (Sunday).
The House Speaker said that “everyone around the world, all free[dom]-loving people everywhere, in every nation at the UN, should have applauded” Israeli Prime Minister’s call during his address to the UN last week to end the war by releasing all of the hostages.
“Hamas is a vicious, vile terror organization. They use human shields. They have already murdered some of the hostages and they’ve tortured the rest of them. It is beyond the pale,” Johnson said. “The United Nations needs to get behind the right, the good side of this, so it can be resolved.”
Johnson’s remarks follow Trump’s statement on Thursday, in which he said:” I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”
Several Israeli officials have raised the possibility of applying Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria in response to the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by multiple nations last week.
Last week, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that “there is no intention of even discussing the annexation of Palestinian Authority territories because we don’t want to control the Palestinians.”