Ex-US envoy: Give Palestinian aid to Israel so it can annex West Bank

Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has called for the transfer of $1 billion in Palestinian aid to finance the annexation of the occupied West Bank.

In a new book titled ‘One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, Friedman writes that Israel will need financial assistance “to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” in reference to the occupied West Bank.

He goes on to suggest that if Donald Trump wins the upcoming presidential elections, the next Republican administration and Congress could redirect $1 billion in aid granted to the Palestinians to finance the annexation plan.

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Comparing the fate of Palestinians living under Israeli sovereignty to the citizens of Puerto Rico, which is a designated US territory, he argues: “Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections,” adding, “Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they are not inconsistent with those of Israel.”

Friedman, who served as an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign and remains closely associated with the former president, said he had not yet discussed his annexation plan with Trump, noting that he hopes to share it with him “at the appropriate time.”

This is not the first time Friedman has called for Israel to annex the West Bank. In an interview with the New York Times in 2019 he claimed: “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”

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