End of October 2021, new Israeli government advances new settlement plans to build 3130 new homes across the occupied West Bank. This is the first move that new Prime Minister Bennett took since he took office the office in June 2021. The US State Department criticized the announcement and said that “US is opposing the Israeli expansion settlement”.
It is one of the first obstacle to test the coalition but unlikely to shake it. The fear of Netanyahu return will encourage Bennett to take more decisive decision in order to prove himself as leader of the country and will show himself as aligning with right-ring ideology and nativism which is very strong in Israel. On the other hand, left wing parties will not dispose the coalition since return of Netanyahu is bigger threat that expansion programme. It is the same situation for Arab parties in the coalition. Meanwhile, the coalition will not be collapsed. New Israeli government is preparing new legislation to block Netanyahu from running for another term which might shake or even collapse the government.
Meanwhile, the new expansion will likely to increase the risk of violence by undermining the territorial viability of a future Palestinian state. Especially, new settlement is in a corridor where it will likely to cut East Jerusalem off from key transportation routes connecting it to rest of the West Bank. The new settlement brings risk of blocking new formation of viable Palestinian state.
The endless push from Israel to set new establishment will likely to bring new criticism and cause finally taking actions by US Senate in future. President Obama opened the gate of criticism when Israel introduced new settlement. Many calls have been done to Washington when Israel decided to increase settlement in West Bank. Many states asked US to use its leverage on Israel. So far, US declines to use it but more pressure from international arena will likely to make some affects in future. However that happens, it is unclear how US – Israel relations will be disturbed even if US uses such leverages since US needs Israel in the region while Washington will be busy in Asia to deal with China.
