Israeli settlers in the West Bank see Trump's victory as an opportunity to move forward

On a clear day, Tel Aviv's skyscrapers can be seen from the hill above Karnei Shomron, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

“I feel different from Tel Aviv,” said Sondra Paras, who has lived in Karnei Shomron for nearly 40 years. “I live in a place where my ancestors lived thousands of years ago. I do not live in an occupied area, but rather in Judea and Samaria mentioned in the Bible.”

For many settlers here, the dividing line between the State of Israel and the lands it seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war has been erased from their narratives.

The hilltop audio guide for visitors describes the West Bank as “a territory belonging to Israel” and the Palestinian city of Nablus as the place where God promised the Jews the land.

But formal annexation of these lands has so far remained a dream of settlers like Sondra, even as the settlements – which the UN Supreme Court and most other countries consider illegal – grow year after year.

Now many see an opportunity to go further, with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.

“I was thrilled that Trump won,” Sondra told me. He added: “I very much want to extend sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. And I feel that this is something that Trump can support.”

There are indications that some in his next administration may agree with her.

Mike Huckabee, whom Trump nominated as the new ambassador to Israel, indicated his support for Israeli claims to the West Bank in an interview last year.

He said, “When people use the term 'occupier' I say: Yes, Israel occupies the land, but it is an occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It is their land.”

Yisrael Gantz, head of the Regional Settlement Council that oversees Karnei Shomron, says he has already noticed a change in the tone of the incoming Trump administration as a result of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which led to the war in Gaza.

“Here in Israel and the United States, they realize that we must apply sovereignty here,” he told me. “It is a process. I cannot tell you that it will happen tomorrow. But in my view, the dream of a two-state solution is dead.”

US President Joe Biden has always maintained the American position supporting the establishment of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel. Asked if he was hearing something different about the incoming Trump administration, Gantz replied: “Of course, yes.”

But there are also signs that Israelis pushing to annex the West Bank — some of them in cabinet positions — may be disappointed by Trump's decisions.

Their hopes were boosted by memories of his first term as president, during which he broke with decades of American policy — and international consensus — by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 2013. 1967.

But supporting the annexation of the West Bank will be a bigger and more thorny issue for Trump.

This is likely to alienate Washington's other major ally, Saudi Arabia, complicating Trump's chances of reaching a broader regional agreement.

It could also alienate some moderate Republicans in the US Congress, who are concerned about the impact on Palestinians in the West Bank and their future status under Israeli rule.

Settler leader Sondra Paras told me that West Bank Palestinians who don't want to live in Israel can “go anywhere they want.”

When asked why they left their homeland, she said: “I'm not expelling them, but things have changed. How many wars did they start? And they lost.”

“If sovereignty comes forward, there will be a lot of shouting and screaming, for sure,” she continued. “But at some point, you create an irreversible reality.”

Shortly after Trump won the election last November, the far-right Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, publicly called for the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

He said: “2025 must be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

Whether the new US president agrees or not, many Palestinians say the discussion of formal annexation misses the basic point: that Israel is, in practice, already annexing territory here.

Among them is Muhib Salama. He leads me through the ruins of his family home, built on private Palestinian land, on the outskirts of Nablus. An Israeli court ruled last year that the building was illegal and it was demolished.

Israel has full control over security and planning in 60% of the West Bank on a temporary basis, as stipulated in the Oslo Peace Accords three decades ago.

While settlements expand, permits to build homes are almost never granted to Palestinians. Lawyers say demolitions like this are on the rise.

“This is all part of policies to force us to leave,” Muhib said. “It is a policy of forced migration. What difference does it make to them (the Israelis) if I build here or not? We do not pose any threat to them.”

Palestinians are also increasingly being forced from their lands by violent Israeli settlers – who have been sanctioned by the US and UK, but left largely unchallenged by Israeli courts at home.

Activists say more than 20 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been evicted over the past few years by increasingly violent attacks, and that settlers are now encroaching on new areas outside Israel's temporary civilian control.

Mohib told me that no American president has ever protected the Palestinians, and he doesn't think Donald Trump will either.

The next US president is widely viewed as a friend of Israel.

But he's also a man who also likes to make deals – and avoid conflicts.