Israeli settlers in West Bank see Trump win as chance to push on inkeinspires

On a clear day, Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers are visible from the hill above Karnei Shomron, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

“I feel different from Tel Aviv,” said Sondra Baras, who has lived in Karnei Shomron for almost 40 years. “I live in a place where my ancestors lived thousands of years ago. I don’t live in occupied territory; I live in biblical Judea and Samaria.”

For many settlers here, the border between the state of Israel and the territory it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war has been erased from their narrative.

The visitors’ audio guide atop the hill describes the West Bank as “a region of Israel” and the Palestinian city of Nablus as the place where God promised the land to the Jews.

But the formal annexation of this territory has so far remained a dream for settlers like Sondra, even as the settlements – considered illegal by the highest court of the UN and most other countries – have multiplied year after year.

Many now see an opportunity to go further, with the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States.

“I was thrilled that Trump won,” Sondra told me. “I really want to expand sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. And I think that’s something Trump could support.”

There are signs that some members of her new administration may agree with her.

Mike Huckabee, named Trump’s new ambassador to Israel, expressed support for Israeli claims to the West Bank in an interview last year.

“When people use the term ‘occupied,’ I say, ‘Yes, Israel occupies the land, but it’s occupation of land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It’s their land ‘” he said.

Yisrael Gantz, head of the regional settlement council that oversees Karnei Shomron, says he has already noticed a change in tone from the new Trump administration following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war against Gaza.

“Both here in Israel and in the United States, they understand that we have to apply sovereignty here,” he told me. “It’s a process. I can’t tell you it will be tomorrow. But in my eyes, the dream of a two-state solution is dead.”

US President Joe Biden has always maintained the US position in favor of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel. Asked if he was hearing anything different from the new Trump administration, Mr. Gantz said: “Of course, yes.”

But there are also signs that Israelis pushing for West Bank annexation – some of them in ministerial posts – may be disappointed by Trump’s decisions.

Their hopes were fueled by memories of his first term as president, during which he broke with decades of American policy – ​​and international consensus – by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. occupied, which was conquered from Syria in 2017. 1967.

But supporting annexation of the West Bank would be a much bigger and thornier issue for Trump.

That would likely alienate Washington’s other key ally, Saudi Arabia, complicating Trump’s chances of reaching a broader regional agreement.

It could also alienate some moderate Republicans in the US Congress, concerned about the impact on West Bank Palestinians and their future status under Israeli rule.

Settler leader Sondra Baras told me that West Bank Palestinians who don’t want to live in Israel can “go wherever they want.”

Asked why they should leave their country, she said: “I’m not expelling them, but things are changing. How many wars have they started? And they lost.”

“If sovereignty were to move forward, there would certainly be a lot of shouting and screaming,” she continued. “But at some point you create an irreversible fact.”

Shortly after Trump’s election victory last November, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly called for the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“2025 must be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

Whether the new US president agrees or not, many Palestinians say talk of formal annexation misses the point: In practice, Israel is already annexing territory here.

One of them is Mohaib Salameh. He leads me through the rubble of his family home, built on private Palestinian land on the outskirts of Nablus. The building was deemed illegal by an Israeli court last year and demolished.

Israel temporarily has full control over security and planning in 60 percent of the West Bank, as provided for in the Oslo Peace Accords three decades ago.

As settlements expand, Palestinian housing permits are almost never granted. And lawyers say such demolitions are increasing.

“This is all part of a policy to force us out,” Mohaib said. “This is a policy of forced migration. What difference does it make to them [Israelis] if I build here or not? We pose no threat to them. »

Palestinians are also increasingly being forced off their land by violent Israeli settlers – who have been sanctioned by the US and UK, but are largely unchallenged by Israeli courts at home .

Activists say more than 20 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been displaced in recent years by increasingly violent attacks, and that settlers are now encroaching on new areas outside Israel’s interim civilian control.

Mohaib told me that no American president had ever protected the Palestinians, nor did he believe Donald Trump would.

The next US president is widely seen as a friend of Israel.

But he is also a man who likes to close deals and avoid conflicts.