Donald Trump has pulled the emergency brake on Israel’s move toward annexing the West Bank, bringing the process to a sudden and decisive halt. His statement from the Oval Office, “Nope, I will not allow it,” served as an immediate stop signal to the far-right elements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
This sudden stop was initiated just as Netanyahu was arriving in New York for the UN General Assembly, creating an immediate political jolt for the Israeli leader. The momentum his coalition had been building toward annexation has now collided with the unmovable object of American opposition.
The decision to pull the brake seems to be a direct response to a chorus of international alarm bells. European allies, after recognizing Palestine, feared the US would accelerate in the opposite direction. Their warnings, along with those from Arab states about a regional crash, evidently convinced Trump to intervene.
The vehicle that was halted was carrying the policy of annexing the West Bank, a territory with 700,000 Israeli settlers. The international community had warned that this journey’s end would mean the death of the two-state solution.
This dramatic intervention is also critically linked to the ongoing effort to find a resolution for the Gaza war. The US is trying to steer the region toward its 21-point peace plan. By pulling the emergency brake on the West Bank, the administration may be trying to clear the tracks to focus all diplomatic energy on ending the nearly two-year Gaza conflict.