What Israel’s Push Toward West Bank Annexation Means

As Israel’s war in Gaza approaches the two-year mark, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist coalition partners are urging annexation of the West Bank, the larger of the Palestinian territories neighboring Israel. Netanyahu has been reticent about if or when this might happen, but he voted with the majority in July when parliament passed a non-binding resolution to apply sovereignty to Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank. Netanyahu stirred further speculation about expansion plans when he spoke approvingly, if fleetingly, of the idea of a “Greater Israel” during a TV interview.

It’s a hilly and kidney-shaped Palestinian territory west of the Jordan River, home to about 3.2 million Palestinians and half a million Israeli settlers. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and has occupied it ever since.