Trump & Netanyahu struggle to agree on future of Judea & Samaria
President Trump’s failure to propose his plan for the future of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) since he promised its release in March 2025 has finally caught up with him.
At a joint press conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu held at the White House on 4 February 2025 President Trump was asked:
Mr President, do you support Israeli sovereignty in the Judea and Samaria areas, which many believe is the biblical homeland of the Jewish people?
Trump replied:
Well, we’re discussing that with many of your representatives. You’re represented very well, and people do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet. But we will be – we’ll be making an announcement probably on that very specific topic over the next four weeks.
Fast forward to a press conference on 30 December 2025 held in Mar-a- Lago with Netanyahu again standing next to him – Trump was involved in the following exchange:
REPORTER: Mr. President, did you have a message for the Prime Minister about the West Bank? And are you at all concerned that settler violence, Israeli settler violence, could be undermining the peace plan?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we have had a discussion, a big discussion, for a long time on the West Bank. And I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100 percent. But we will come to a conclusion on the West Bank.
REPORTER: If I could ask, what is the disagreement?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to do that. It’ll be announced at an appropriate time. But he will do the right thing. I know that. I know him very well. He will do the right thing. Yes.
Their disagreement seemingly centres around Israel’s objection to an independent Palestinian State being created between Israel and Jordan located west of the Jordan River – following the Knesset’s decision by a vote of 68 -9 on 18 July 2024:
“The Knesset of Israel firmly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan. The establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.
“It will only be a matter of a short time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a radical Islamic terror base that operates in coordination with the Iranian-led axis to eliminate the State of Israel. Promoting the idea of a Palestinian state at this time would be a reward for terrorism and would only encourage Hamas and its supporters, who will view this as a victory thanks to the massacre of October 7, 2023, and a prelude to the takeover of jihadist Islam in the Middle East.”
Trump stated on 26 September 2025:
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope. I will not allow. It’s not gonna happen,”
Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Jennifer Locetta told the Security Council on 18 December 2025:
“President Trump has been perfectly clear that the United States expects the violence in the West Bank to end, and that the United States will not allow the annexation of the West Bank,”
These protestations would not preclude Israel annexing part of the West Bank – as Trump provided in his 2020 Peace Plan.
The remainder would be merged with Jordan – as happened between 1948 and 1967 – and has again been advocated by the Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (HKOPS) first proposed in 2020 and reaffirmed in 2022.
Mutually agreeing to fuse Trump’s 2020 Peace Plan with HKOPS would signal Trump and Netanyahu’s rapprochement.
The author has a Facebook page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”
Author’s note: The cartoon was drawn in November 2024 by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators – who passed away on 14 April 2025 and whose cartoons graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
