US Speaker Mike Johnson visited one of the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank this week. The Republican leader, who is only behind President Donald Trump and his vice president in his country, is the highest-ranking US figure to officially visit the occupied West Bank in history, so the trip was fraught with symbolism.
Some Israeli media outlets, such as Israel Hayom, revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented him with maps of the West Bank detailing the Israel's plans to annex this Palestinian region. In fact, the formalization of the annexation of the West Bank depends solely on Netanyahu's will, and with each passing day it seems more inevitable. Since its occupation during the 1967 war, the West Bank has undergone a very characteristic change of physiognomy, with the establishment of dozens and dozens of Jewish colonies everywhere and with the marginalization of the Palestinian population in isolated ghettos, until reaching the situation today, which to today's ears seems...
Current circumstances indicate that Israel is only one step away from extending its sovereignty throughout the West Bank. This will be possible because President Trump is completely in tune with the radical Zionism that Netanyahu represents, a circumstance that is being seen particularly in the war in Gaza, a war that many people describe as... genocide, even in Israel.
Netanyahu doesn't want to miss this opportunity. The fiasco of October 7, 2023, has left the prime minister in a critical situation, and before leaving, he wants to change the entire region. Only time will tell if the decisions he's making will be positive for Israel, but in any case, he wants to leave a different Middle East, and that has a lot to do with the Palestinians.
The same day that Republican Mike Johnson visited the Jewish settlement of Shiloh, Netanyahu was preparing to continue the war in the Gaza Strip. The prime minister has decided conquer the entire Strip and has explained that only in this way will Hamas be defeated and the 50 hostages (of which 20 are still alive) be released.
This is the instruction he has given the army, although military officials believe it is a dangerous plan for two reasons. First, because the army estimates that completely conquering the Strip will cost a lot of soldiers' lives, and second, because it will endanger the lives of the hostages who are still alive.
But Netanyahu seems determined to take these risks and the complexity of the situation seems insignificant to him. At the same time, he is fighting against the state attorney, whom he wants to resign because she opposes some of his decisions. He has also expelled the chairman of the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, who wanted to gradually recruit young ultra-Orthodox men into military service.
In the early hours of Friday morning, The security cabinet approved the conquest of Gaza CityNow the army will have to recruit thousands of reservists. That's why it may take a few weeks, and Netanyahu's plan is to conquer the entire Strip. For the first time, he said that, once conquered, he will hand it over to Arab countries for their administration, something that seems difficult to swallow.
Certainly, the Middle East is experiencing a decisive moment. In the short term, everything seems to indicate that Netanyahu, with the support of Trump, who still has more than three years left in office, can do and undo whatever he wants. However, the outcome of some of his most controversial decisions will only be known in the long term. And this also applies to overly authoritarian domestic decisions.
