All eyes were on Israel on July 1, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was destined to annex parts of the West Bank, but then, well, nothing happened.
In this week’s episode of Mundane, Vox Weekly International Podcast, Senior Correspondent Zack Beauchamp, International Security and Defense Journalist Alex Ward and Senior Foreign Editor Jennifer Williams discuss what happened, or rather why nothing happened, and what all this it means for the future of the much-sought “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu’s plan to annex approximately 30 percent of the West Bank would have dramatically altered the situation in the Israeli-occupied territory, which is home to nearly 3 million Palestinians, as well as around 500,000 Jewish settlers.
And, as Vox’s Jen Kirby explains, it would have invested years of consensus on the two-state framework, historically backed by the United States and the international community. Under that plan, the vast majority of the West Bank would eventually, as part of a final peace agreement between the two sides, be transferred to the Palestinians to form the nucleus of an independent state of Palestine.
But peace talks have stalled for years, and there is no agreement anywhere on the horizon. Therefore, the Israeli right has been pushing for the Netanyahu government to go ahead and unilaterally annex significant portions of the West Bank that it wants to preserve, officially making them part of Israel, regardless of what the Palestinians think about it.
Netanyahu promised to follow through with a plan to do exactly that on July 1, but then it all seemed to go wrong (for him).
Netanyahu is not only currently being prosecuted on corruption charges, but Israel is also facing a massive resurgence of coronaviruses that quickly surpassed the first outbreak. Benny Gantz, who will serve as the next Prime Minister, urges Netanyahu to tackle the relentless second wave first.
Possibly more important is the swift international condemnation of Israel’s annexation plan: the United Nations says it is illegal, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote an opinion piece against the plan. Even the United States hesitated to support the measure, despite being a direct result of the Trump administration’s “peace plan”.
To learn more about all the factors that led to Netanyahu’s sudden reversal, how US policy plays a part in this, and what all this means for the future of the two-state solution, listen to the full episode of Mundane, which you can transmit below.
And subscribe to Mundane on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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