From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Smotrich: Netanyahu must convince Trump to back West Bank annexation during upcoming US trip
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convince US President Donald Trump to back Israeli annexation of the West Bank during his upcoming trip to the United States — a highly unlikely prospect.
“Mr. Prime Minister, we expect you to return from Washington with a decision on de jure sovereignty,” Smotrich declares during an event marking the establishment of a new building for employees of the Civil Administration in the West Bank.
“The day is not far off, that, God willing, this building will also provide government services to settlements in the Gaza area. I am instructing the director of government housing at the Finance Ministry to locate a building for opening a southern branch so that residents of the renewed settlements in Gaza will not have to travel all the way here,” he adds, echoing Defense Minister Israel Katz’s statement this morning at an event in the Beit El settlement that Israel will resettle Gaza “at the appropriate time.”
Smotrich and Katz’s statements contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that Israel does not plan to resettle the coastal enclave, as well as the US peace plan, which calls for an eventual Israeli withdrawal and stipulates that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.”
Trump’s administration also opposes West Bank annexation and has warned Jerusalem against advancing such moves.
Speaking at the same event earlier, Smotrich declared that his “life’s mission is to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state — and I am sticking to this mission with full determination.”
This is the second time this week that Smotrich has called on Netanyahu to bring up annexation with Trump. Speaking with reporters ahead of his hard-right Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday, Smotrich insisted that Netanyahu “must finally also put Judea and Samaria on the table.”
Asserting that “the PA is a terrorist entity that must be eradicated,” Smotrich insisted that in order to ensure that the West Bank does not become the next Gaza, Israel must apply sovereignty there.
In September, Smotrich proposed annexing 82 percent of the West Bank in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. Since then, Smotrich and Katz have worked to expand Israeli settlement, leading to a government decision to build 11 new settlements and legalize or recognize eight illegal outposts.
The Times of Israel Community.