In a dramatic turn on the world stage, U.S. President Donald Trump has firmly declared that Israel will not be permitted to annex the occupied West Bank, despite mounting pressure from far-right voices within Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. The announcement, made from the Oval Office on September 25 and reiterated in meetings with Arab and Muslim leaders at the United Nations, signals a rare and public divergence between Washington and Jerusalem at a moment of heightened international tension over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope. I will not allow. It’s not gonna happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House, according to Al Jazeera. When pressed on whether he had discussed the matter directly with Netanyahu, Trump remained vague, stating, “Yeah, but I’m not gonna allow it. Whether I spoke to him or not, I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now, OK?”
This unequivocal stance comes as Netanyahu prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York and then meet with Trump in Washington. The Israeli leader faces intense pressure from his coalition partners, especially far-right ministers like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have called for the annexation of the West Bank as a direct response to a wave of international recognitions of Palestinian statehood. In July, Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a non-binding motion to annex the territory, a move that would effectively end prospects for a two-state solution.
International momentum for Palestinian recognition has been building rapidly. In recent weeks, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Belgium, and other European nations have formally recognized Palestine as a state. This diplomatic shift has alarmed Israeli officials, who argue that annexation is a necessary countermeasure to prevent further erosion of Israel’s claims to the land. According to BBC, Netanyahu’s coalition partners see annexation as a way to block mounting international recognition of a Palestinian state.
Trump’s position appears to have been shaped in part by intense diplomatic engagement with Arab and Muslim leaders. During the UN General Assembly week, he met with eight prominent leaders from Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The message from these allies was clear: annexation would have dire regional consequences. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan stated, “I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank,” as reported by AFP.
Behind closed doors, Trump and his team presented a 21-point plan for Middle East peace, promising that the United States would not support Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Multiple sources confirmed to the media that these assurances were delivered directly to Arab leadership, a move that helped ease regional anxieties about Washington’s intentions. Turkish officials, for example, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting, suggesting that Trump’s private commitments matched his public statements.
Still, skepticism remains about whether Trump will follow through on his promise. Mouin Rabbani, an analyst at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, told Al Jazeera, “One attaches value to Trump’s words at their own peril. So the question now becomes, is he going to ensure that Israel does not annex the West Bank, and if it does, what will he do about it? Will his mind perhaps be changed by another conversation that he has?” Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, echoed these doubts, noting that the U.S. has sometimes rebuked Israel only to stand by as controversial policies are implemented.
On the Israeli side, the debate is fierce. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government, including Smotrich, have been explicit in their intentions. Smotrich recently unveiled plans for a massive settlement expansion in the controversial E1 corridor, stating that the project would “finally bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise.” He warned, “Anyone in the world who tries today to recognise a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground.”
Meanwhile, the humanitarian toll in Gaza remains staggering. The Hamas-run health ministry reports that more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023, including over 18,000 children. On September 24 alone, local hospitals reported more than 80 Palestinian deaths in Israeli strikes, as cited by the BBC. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, barred by Washington from traveling to New York, addressed the UN remotely. He expressed willingness to cooperate on a France-led peace plan and called for a Palestinian state to assume full governance over Gaza and establish territorial continuity with the West Bank, explicitly excluding Hamas from any future government role.
Abbas also sought to distance the Palestinian cause from Hamas’s violent actions. “Despite all that our people have suffered, we reject what Hamas carried out on October 7—actions that targeted Israeli civilians and took them hostage—because these actions do not represent the Palestinian people, nor do they represent their just struggle for freedom and independence,” he said, according to AFP. He described the ongoing Israeli assault as “one of the most horrific chapters of humanitarian tragedy of the 20th and 21st century.”
The international response to the crisis is intensifying. The European Commission is preparing sanctions targeting extremist Israeli ministers, Microsoft has curtailed services to Israel’s defense ministry over surveillance concerns, and global calls for an end to the war are growing louder. The International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal and must be discontinued, a verdict that further isolates Israel diplomatically.
Despite the uncertainty, Trump remains publicly optimistic about brokering a peace deal. “We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza and maybe even peace,” he said. Yet, with so many competing interests and deep-seated mistrust on all sides, the path forward remains fraught with challenges.
As the world watches, the coming weeks may prove pivotal in shaping the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the broader Middle East. Whether Trump’s bold declarations translate into concrete policy—and whether Netanyahu’s government heeds the warnings from Washington and the international community—remains to be seen.