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Gradual and creeping annexation of the West Bank will sabotage the Trump administration’s plan for Gaza and harm Israeli national security in other ways as well, 600 former Israeli defense officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter.
Until Sunday, a series of rules required extra approvals from the IDF legal division, the Civil Administration, the Palestinian Authority, and others for purchasing or building on land in Judea and Samaria.
On Sunday, the government announced that it was repealing or streamlining many of those rules to make it easier for Jewish Israelis to acquire land in areas where it was much harder to do so until now.
According to the group Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), led by former major general Matan Vilnai, and including former heads of the Mossad, the Shin Bet, the police, and other top IDF officials, this latest move could anger the Trump administration and even cause Phase II of the Gaza ceasefire to unravel.
“The timing of the decision – on the eve of your meeting with the President of the United States, who has publicly expressed his firm opposition to the annexation of territories – raises questions about the judgment of the Cabinet and its leadership,” said CIS in the letter.
CIS added, “Furthermore, your decision may be perceived as yet another attempt to disrupt President Trump’s efforts to advance an arrangement for the Gaza Strip, undermining his 20-point Plan.”
Former Israeli defense officials warn annexation harms security, peace
The former senior security officials cautioned that the move could also have other negative impacts.
They wrote that the move to “privatize land purchases in the West Bank and to take over Palestinian Authority powers in Areas A and B represents yet another grave step, demonstrating that your government intends to proceed with annexation of the territories along with their millions of Palestinian residents.”
“In doing so, it endangers Israel’s security, its relations with Diaspora Jewry and with regional peace partners, and its international standing,” they contended.
Next, CIS stated that, “These steps towards annexation will severely harm Israel’s security, most immediately due to the need they will drive to deploy IDF forces and Shin Bet assets to protect private property and construction pursued in the absence of full national planning that accounts for security considerations…and this at a time of manpower shortages amid challenges on multiple fronts.”
Moreover, CIS wrote, “The country’s security…will be harmed as these steps will further undermine the stability of the Palestinian Authority, whose security mechanisms’ activity – in coordination with our forces – against Hamas elements and other terrorist organizations is highly valued by our own security establishment.”
In addition, CIS predicted that these moves could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
“The collapse of the PA (further exacerbated by the financial strangulation applied by your government) will saddle both our forces and the national budget with an unbearable burden, given the resulting cost of managing and financing the lives of millions of Palestinians,” said CIS.
In the long term, CIS asserted that, “These moves, combined with the sharp and unabated escalation of Jewish terrorism in the Territories, contribute directly to – and will further exacerbate – the radicalization of young Palestinians and thereby to their arming and recruitment into Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”
Further, CIS noted that the decision “has already provoked harsh reactions from Israel’s longstanding peace partners (Egypt and Jordan), and the Abraham Accords community. Such rebuke has also been sounded by other nations in the region with whom normalization would likely be possible given different Israeli policies and decisions.”
“In pursuing the policies reflected in the Cabinet decision, Israel is foregoing the opportunity for a fundamental revolution of its security position: integration into a regional coalition against Iran and other malign actors,” CIS accused.
Despite the warnings and Trump’s opposition to full annexation, to date, his administration has been much more tolerant of small-scale Israeli expansion in the West Bank than prior American administrations.
In addition, while the PA is unquestionably weakened in 2026 compared to earlier years, and it may at some point collapse, to date, it has avoided collapse even when many expected it to.
Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich regularly openly calls to end the PA, but Netanyahu, to date, has harmed it in various ways without openly toppling it.
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