Dermer reportedly thinks Israel can annex Jordan Valley without major diplomatic backlash

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a top confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes Israel can maneuver to annex the West Bank’s Jordan Valley without major diplomatic fallout in Washington and even in the United Arab Emirates, the Ynet news site reports, citing three diplomatic and political sources.

Dermer thinks the move can “pass diplomatically” if he presents it as a reaction to the recognition of a Palestinian state next week by France, the UK, and other Western nations at the United Nations General Assembly, according to the report.

He also believes US Democrats will respond relatively quietly to the move, reports Ynet, pointing to what he says is a lack of opposition from centrist opposition parties in Israel.

Dermer has reportedly made such predictions in the past, assuring counterparts that he could secure US support for annexation in January 2020 when Trump unveiled his Mideast peace plan and in July 2020, before Israel agreed to shelve the initiative in exchange for normalizing ties with the UAE.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed annexation with Netanyahu during his visit this week, according to the report, and said that the US warned European states that unilateral recognition would lead to Israel responding in kind.

While many in Israel do not support annexation of the West Bank, there has been much wider purchase for the idea that Israel will need to maintain security control over the Jordan Valley, a largely barren area of the West Bank that borders Jordan.

The report comes hours after an attack in which an assailant driving a Gaza-bound aid truck from Jordan into the West Bank via the Jordan Valley’s Allenby Crossing killed two Israelis at the border terminal.