In a dramatic political showdown that exposed rifts within Israel’s governing coalition and triggered rebukes from Washington, the Knesset on Wednesday advanced two bills to extend Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria—despite fierce opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and explicit warnings from the Trump administration. The votes came as US Vice President JD Vance stood on Israeli soil, turning what should have been a celebration of strengthening US-Israel ties into an international embarrassment that left Vance declaring himself personally insulted by the “very stupid political stunt.”
The broader bill, sponsored by MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party, would apply Israeli law and sovereignty to all communities in Judea and Samaria, declaring these areas “an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel.” It passed its preliminary reading by the narrowest of margins—25 to 24—after Likud MK Yuli Edelstein broke ranks with his party to cast the deciding vote. A second, more limited bill by opposition leader Avigdor Liberman would annex the major city of Ma’ale Adumim near Jerusalem, passing 32 to 9.
The legislative rebellion left Netanyahu’s Likud scrambling to contain the damage, immediately stripping Edelstein of his Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee seat. The party dismissed the bills as opposition “trolling” designed to harm Israel’s relationship with Washington and undermine military achievements in Gaza.
For supporters of the bills, sovereignty over the Biblical heartland is rooted in both history and scripture. The Bible records God’s covenant with Abraham: “On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates'” (Genesis 15:18). This promise forms the foundation of the Jewish claim to the land, a claim that predates modern borders, international law, or diplomatic agreements by millennia.
MK Maoz articulated this perspective when he told lawmakers: “The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the people of Israel the Land of Israel. Settlement in the Land of Israel is the redemption and national revival, settlement is what makes the Land of Israel flourish after two thousand years of exile.” He framed sovereignty not as a political maneuver but as fulfilling an ancient obligation, declaring: “In applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, we are making a correction that is long overdue.”
The Trump administration saw things differently. President Trump told Time magazine that annexation “won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” warning that “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.” Vance went further, saying at Ben Gurion Airport that the Knesset vote “offended” him and was “weird.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the legislative move could threaten Trump’s plan to end the Gaza conflict.
The contrast is striking. During his first term, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and moved the US embassy to Jerusalem—both actions that acknowledged Jewish claims to contested territory. Yet now, American support appears contingent on Israel refraining from asserting sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the heartland where Jewish kings ruled and prophets walked.
Liberman argued for a gradualist approach, proposing to begin with areas of “broadest consensus” like Ma’ale Adumim, Ariel, Gush Etzion, and the Jordan Valley. His strategy accepts that Jewish sovereignty requires building political support domestically and internationally before taking legal action.
The political theater in the Knesset revealed deeper truths about Israel’s predicament. Netanyahu’s coalition partners from Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit supported the bills, exposing the gap between the government’s right-wing rhetoric and its willingness to act. Even the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party split, with some members supporting the legislation to highlight what they called the hypocrisy of a government whose ministers call for annexation while blocking actual steps toward it.
Edelstein’s defection proved decisive. “Israeli sovereignty in all parts of our homeland is the order of the day,” he declared, calling on “all Zionist factions to vote in favor.” His vote gave the broader bill its one-vote margin of victory but cost him his committee seat within hours.
The bills face near-certain defeat in subsequent votes, given Trump’s explicit rejection. The legislation must pass three more times in the Knesset plenum after committee deliberations—a journey it will not complete as long as American opposition remains firm and Netanyahu refuses to defy Washington.
Yet Wednesday’s votes forced into the open a question Israel’s leaders have long avoided: Does the Jewish state possess the independence to assert sovereignty over territory it controls and considers its historical homeland, or will it forever defer that decision to the approval of foreign powers—even friendly ones?
Opposition to Israeli sovereignty is based on a “Two-State Solution.” The plan would create an unprecedented militarized Arab state inside Israel’s borders, ethnically cleansed of Jews, with its exclusively muslim capital in Jerusalem, similar to the Hamas-run state that emerged when Israel evacuated Gaza twenty years ago.
