Vice President JD Vance blasts Knesset vote backing Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, calls the move “stupid” and says he was “personally” insulted by it.
By World Israel News Staff
Vice President JD Vance chided Israeli lawmakers on Thursday, saying he was “personally” insulted by a pair of votes overnight backing steps to apply Israeli sovereignty over part or all of Judea and Samaria.
On Wednesday, the Knesset voted to give preliminary backing to two bills drafted by opposition lawmakers.
One bill, proposed by Noam’s lone MK, Avi Maoz, would extend Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, while the second, drafted by the Israel Beytenu party, would only annex the city of Ma’ale Adumim, east of Jerusalem.
Both votes passed despite attempts by the ruling coalition to block their passage, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging coalition allies to be absent from the vote.
The bills passed their preliminary readings during Vice President Vance’s visit to Israel, with Vance saying he was both perplexed and insulted by the timing.
“Yeah, that was weird. I was sort of confused by that,” Vance said prior to his departure from Israel. “I actually asked somebody about it, and they told me that it was a symbolic vote… to annex the West Bank.”
“Somebody told me that it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic.”
“Look, if it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it.”
Vance went on to reject any moves by Israel to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, echoing comments by President Donald Trump last month.
“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” said Vance. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. 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.”
While Trump hinted in February that his administration was considering backing some form of Israeli annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria, last month the president reversed course, declaring that he will “not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.”
“Nope. I will not allow. It is not going to happen.”
Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the Knesset votes “counterproductive,” warning they could jeopardize the Gaza peace plan.
Before departing Thursday, Vance also claimed that Hamas is adhering to the truce, despite multiple violations by the terror group, including a deadly attack on Israeli forces on Sunday.
“Right now, we can say with confidence that Israel is respecting the ceasefire, Hamas is respecting the ceasefire.”
“There are little exceptions that break out here and there,” Vance said, downplaying Hamas’ attacks and infiltration attempts.
“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.”
“Our message is: do whatever you can to work with us to make this peace stick.”
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