Israel unlikely to annex West Bank
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Xinhua, September 21, 2011
Dozens of U.S. lawmakers have thrown their support behind an Israeli Knesset parliamentarian's call for annexing the West Bank should the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas asks the United Nations Security Council to back a likely General Assembly resolution recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
However, the possibility of annexation is "out of the question at the moment," Professor Stuart Cohen of Bar-Ilan University told Xinhua Tuesday.
Illinois Republican Congressman Joe Walsh put forward a motion Monday to show support for Israel's right to annex the West Bank. Some 30 other Republican Congressmen backed the proposal.
A spokesman for Walsh said the intent of the motion was to " explain to the Palestinians that actions have consequences."
In Israel, Likud member Ofir Akunis has submitted a motion calling on Israel to annex the West Bank if Abbas goes through with the bid, and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has warned that such a Palestinian move would have dire consequences.
Israel, the United States and the European Union have said that unilateral action isn't the way forward and the Palestinian independence can only come as a result of a negotiated agreement with Israel.
Low possibility
An annexation of the West Bank "won't be in Israel's best interest and that's the majority opinion in the government," Cohen said.
Cohen argued that such a move would seriously damage Israel's international standing and "it would certainly destroy any slim chance that might remain for the negotiations with the Palestinians."
Dr. Israel Waismel-Manor, an expert at U.S. politics at the University of Haifa, said that Walsh's motion isn't anything out of the extraordinary in U.S. politics.
"Many bills have been introduced in the past that are even more supportive of Israel than Israel supports itself," he said.
"You can find members of the U.S. Congress that are more extreme than members of the Israeli Knesset parliament," he added.
Waismel-Manor said that over the years a number of similar resolutions have been put forward by U.S. lawmakers. One of the more widely known is the one calling for the U.S. embassy in Israel to move from Tel Aviv, where most nations have their diplomatic mission, to Jerusalem.
However, the decision is always vetoed by the serving president out of concern that such a move may have negative implications for U.S. relations with the nations that doesn't recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"On the practical level there is no chance that Joe Walsh will get enough votes to pass the bill," Waismel-Manor said.
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