{"id":93999,"date":"2025-10-23T20:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/93999\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:27:08","slug":"vance-slams-israels-parliament-vote-on-west-bank-annexation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/93999\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance slams Israel’s parliament vote on West Bank annexation"},"content":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday criticized a symbolic vote in Israel\u2019s parliament the previous day about annexing the occupied West Bank<\/a>, saying that it amounted to an \u201cinsult\u201d and went against the Trump administration policies.<\/p>\n

Hard-liners in the Israeli parliament had narrowly passed a preliminary vote in support of annexing parts of the West Bank \u2014 an apparent attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> while Vance was still in the country. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Before departing Israel, Vance also unveiled new details about U.S. plans for Gaza, saying he expected reconstruction to begin soon in some \u201cHamas-free\u201d areas of the territory. But he warned that rebuilding the territory after a devastating war<\/a>, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, could take years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe hope is to rebuild Rafah over the next two to three years and theoretically you could have half a million people live (there),\u201d he said, referring to the Gaza Strip\u2019s southernmost city.<\/p>\n

That would account for about a quarter of the territory\u2019s population of roughly 2 million, 90% of whom were displaced from their homes<\/a> during the war. Out of every 10 buildings that stood in Gaza before the war, eight are either damaged or flattened<\/a>. An estimated cost of rebuilding Gaza is about $53 billion, according to the World Bank, the U.N. and the European Union.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s rebuke<\/p>\n

The Israeli parliament\u2019s vote has stirred widespread condemnation, with more than a dozen countries \u2014 including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia \u2014 rebuking it in a joint statement that called all Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law. <\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s office said in a statement that the \u201cvote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu is struggling to stave off an early election as cracks grow more apparent between factions in Israel\u2019s right-wing parties, some of whom were upset over the ceasefire and the security sacrifices it required of Israel. <\/p>\n

Vance said that if the Knesset\u2019s vote was a \u201cpolitical stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally take some insult to it,\u201d Vance said. \u201cThe policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deputy Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Majed Bamya, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Palestinians \u201cappreciate the clear message\u201d that the Trump administration has sent in opposition to annexation. <\/p>\n

While many members of Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, including his Likud Party, support annexation, they have backed off those calls since U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> said last month that he opposes such a move. <\/p>\n

The Palestinians seek the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for a future independent state. Israeli annexation of the West Bank would all but bury hopes for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians \u2014 the outcome supported by most of the world.<\/p>\n

Analysts like Amichai Cohen, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, say that a \u201cde facto annexation of very large parts\u201d of the West Bank is already underway, referring to the growing number of Israelis living in settlements<\/a> in the Palestinian territory \u2014 even without any law supporting annexation.<\/p>\n

U.S. peace push<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Vance announced the opening of a civilian military coordination center<\/a> in southern Israel where around 200 U.S. troops are working alongside the Israeli military and delegations from other countries planning the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza. <\/p>\n

The United States is seeking support from other allies, especially Gulf Arab nations, to create an international stabilization force to be deployed to Gaza and train a Palestinian force. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to see Palestinian police forces in Gaza that are not Hamas and that are going to do a good job, but those still have to be trained and equipped,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before his trip to Israel.<\/p>\n

Rubio met with Netanyahu on Thursday and, like other U.S. officials and envoys visiting Israel this week, struck a tone of optimism about progress that has been made since the ceasefire began, while noting the challenges that lie ahead. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is under any illusions. We\u2019ve already done the impossible once and we intend to keep doing that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israeli media referred to the parade of American officials visiting to ensure Israel holds up its side of the fragile ceasefire as \u201cBibi-sitting.\u201d The term, utilizing Netanyahu\u2019s nickname of Bibi, refers to an old campaign ad when Netanyahu positioned himself as the \u201cBibi-sitter\u201d whom voters could trust with their kids.<\/p>\n

Medical needs<\/p>\n

In the first medical evacuation since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the World Health Organization\u2019s director-general said Thursday that the group has evacuated 41 critical patients and 145 companions out of the Gaza Strip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement posted to X, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on nations to show solidarity and help around 15,000 patients who are still waiting for approval to receive medical care outside Gaza. <\/p>\n

His calls were echoed by an official with the U.N. Population Fund who on Wednesday described the \u201csheer devastation\u201d that he witnessed on his most recent travel to Gaza, saying that there\u2019s no such thing as a \u201cnormal birth in Gaza now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Saberton, an executive director at UNFPA, told reporters how difficult the agency\u2019s work has become because of the lack of functioning or even standing health care facilities.<\/p>\n

Another major challenge since the ceasefire began has been getting enough aid into Gaza \u2014 and distributed \u2014 to meet the huge demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected Gaza to be flooded with aid the moment the ceasefire began. But that\u2019s not what we\u2019re seeing,\u201d said Bushra Khalidi, who oversees the Palestinian territories division at Oxfam, a nonprofit focused on global poverty.<\/p>\n

More crossings into Gaza need to be opened in order to allow in more trucks, said Antoine Renard, head of the World Food Program in the Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith only two crossings that are open, you are facing clearly congestion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The WFP has 36 distribution centers operating in Gaza, and aims to increase that to 145. Since Oct. 11, the U.N. tracking system has recorded 949 aid trucks that were offloaded in Gaza.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Matthew Lee reported from Washington. Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Sarah El Deeb in Cairo, and Farnoush Amiri in New York, contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s war coverage at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/israel-hamas-war<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday criticized a symbolic vote in Israel\u2019s parliament the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120,62974,62973,53004,2035,49,54,69,122,36206,11161,85,119,46,1984,61,11487,11741,2034,43,238,7319,1032,12131,121,12526,77,126],"class_list":["post-93999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-amichai-cohen","tag-andrew-saberton","tag-antoine-renard","tag-ap-top-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaza-strip","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-government-policy","tag-il","tag-international-agreements","tag-israel","tag-israel-government","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-jd-vance","tag-marco-rubio","tag-mideast-wars","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-washington-news","tag-west-bank","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}