With Donald Trump set to return to the White House, now is the time for Israel to declare sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the very core of the Jewish people's ancestral homeland. In fact, Israel may never get a better opportunity. That being said, Israel must go about annexing Judea and Samaria the right way.
For starters, Israel must not declare sovereignty over even one dunam of Judea and Samaria without the support of the US. Now of course, no country, not even Israel's closest friend, has the right to tell the Jewish people whether they can or cannot claim sovereignty over what is morally and legally theirs. But this is the world of realpolitik, in which the support of the world's strongest nation – and Israel's strongest ally – will be vital if the Jewish state is to exercise formal sovereignty over Judea and Samaria without major diplomatic consequences. And although the new Trump Administration will almost certainly be receptive to Israel annexing territory in Judea and Samaria, their support will depend on one condition: Giving the Palestinians one last chance to say yes to a new Trump peace plan.
Once Trump takes office, he will very likely try to revive his so-called "Deal of the Century." To refresh everyone's memory, this plan, which was publicized in 2020, would allow Israel to annex all of its communities in Judea and Samaria, while giving the Palestinians a state in the remaining territory. Resurrecting this plan will be part of Trump's effort to expand the Abraham Accords, particularly to Saudi Arabia, which has made normalization with Israel contingent on a Palestinian state.
The Palestinians rejected the original Trump plan and will inevitably reject a revised Trump plan because they don't really want a state living peacefully alongside a Jewish state. They never have. They want all of Palestine, "From the river to the sea," as the genocidal slogan goes. That means no more Jewish state. No more Israel.
Once the Palestinians have rejected this plan, the Trump Administration will be able to say to the Arab world that they tried to give the Palestinians a state, but the Palestinians said no, again, thus allowing Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, to pursue normalization with Israel. For their part, Arab leaders would be able to legitimize normalizing relations with Israel in the eyes of their people by explaining to them that it is the Palestinians who are denying themselves statehood, not Israel. Indeed, the Palestinians rejecting a revised Trump peace plan would be the fifth time in this century alone that they have rejected statehood after offers made to them in 2000, 2001, 2008, and 2020. And in truth, Arab leaders don't really care about the Palestinians. They just know their people care and so they pay lip service to the cause.
At the end of all of this, Israel will achieve more peace agreements with Arab states while also being able to annex territory in Judea and Samaria without major consequences. However, Israel will still need to tread carefully, because it does not want to be seen as totally closing the door to an agreement with the Palestinians, even though the Palestinians have been shutting the door to an agreement with Israel for nearly 80 years. Hence, it would be prudent for Israel, at least at first, to only annex territory on which large Israeli communities are situated and territory vital to the state's security – think Gush Etzion, Ma'ale Adumim, Modi'in Illit, Giva't Ze'ev, Ariel and the Jordan Valley.
As Palestinian intransigence continues, Israel can slowly annex more territory until most or all of Area C, the part of Judea and Samaria that is under full Israeli control per the Oslo Accords, is under Israeli sovereignty. In an ideal world, Israel would be able to achieve sovereignty over the entirety of Judea and Samaria. However, this is not feasible, because then Israel would almost certainly have to extend citizenship to some 3 million Palestinians, leaving it with a razor-thin Jewish majority that would not last very long given the Palestinians' high birthrates.
After four years of the Biden Administration's nonstop lecturing about the need for a two-state solution, which polls show neither Israelis nor Palestinians want, Trump's return to the US Presidency is an opportunity for the state of the Jewish people to stake its rightful claim to sovereignty over the land of the Jewish people – Judea and Samaria. An opportunity that Israel must not squander. After all, missing opportunities is something Palestinians do, not Israelis.
