JD Vance lashes out at ‘very stupid’ Israeli vote to annex West Bank

{"text":[[{"start":9.09,"text":"US vice-president JD Vance branded a vote by Israel’s parliament backing annexation of the occupied West Bank a “very stupid political stunt” in a sign of the tensions between the Trump administration and Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies."}],[{"start":25.68,"text":"Speaking to reporters as he concluded a two-day trip to Israel, Vance said Wednesday’s preliminary vote — which would have to be followed by three more to become law — was “weird” and that he “personally” took “some insult to it”."}],[{"start":41.12,"text":"“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” he said. “That will continue to be our policy, and if people want to take symbolic votes they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":54.26,"text":"Later on Thursday President Donald Trump reinforced the vice-president’s message, telling a White House press conference: “Don’t worry about the West Bank. Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank, OK?”"}],[{"start":69.2,"text":"The comments came amid a flurry of heated exchanges between the US, its Arab allies and Israel’s far-right government over the future of the Palestinian territories."}],[{"start":81.14,"text":"Secretary of state Marco Rubio, who himself arrived in Israel on Thursday as part of a series of visits to shore up the US-backed ceasefire, said the bill was “counter-productive” and “potentially threatening to the peace deal”."}],[{"start":97.23,"text":"Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, meanwhile, lashed out at Saudi support for a Palestinian state by telling the kingdom to “keep riding your camels”."}],[{"start":108.67,"text":"Most lawmakers from Netanyahu’s Likud party avoided taking part in the vote, which was proposed by far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz. In a statement, the prime minister’s office called it “a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during vice-president JD Vance’s visit to Israel”."}],[{"start":129.15,"text":"“Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” the statement said."}],[{"start":134.3,"text":"It was backed by most members of the parties of Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, two ultranationalist settlers who play important roles in Netanyahu’s coalition and have long pushed for Israel to annex the West Bank. Palestinians seek the West Bank as the heart of a future state, but the territory has been occupied by Israel for more than half a century."}],[{"start":159.38,"text":"In an interview with Time Magazine published on Thursday, Trump said annexation “won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries”."}],[{"start":169.88,"text":"“Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened,” the president said in the interview, which was conducted last week."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":178.21,"text":"Wednesday’s vote sparked angry reactions from the Arab world, and underscored the difficulties facing the Trump administration as it seeks to secure a permanent end to the war in Gaza, and pushes for Arab states — many of which do not have diplomatic ties with Israel — to establish relations."}],[{"start":198.45000000000002,"text":"Trump and Netanyahu have made no secret of the fact that they view the big prize as a normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, given its influence within the Arab world."}],[{"start":210.44000000000003,"text":"But Saudi leaders have made clear that they are unwilling to normalise relations with Israel without a credible path to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state — something that Netanyahu’s far-right colleagues flatly oppose."}],[{"start":226.82000000000002,"text":"Riyadh swiftly condemned Maoz’s bill — and a second, narrower bill that also passed a preliminary reading on Wednesday calling for annexation of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement — as being aimed at “legitimising Israeli sovereignty over illegal colonial settlement”, and reiterated its support for the two-state solution."}],[{"start":247.8,"text":"Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Smotrich hit out at the kingdom: “If Saudi Arabia tells us it is normalisation in exchange for a Palestinian state, then no thank you, my friends. Keep riding your camels in the Saudi desert.”"}],[{"start":263.29,"text":"His comments were condemned by opposition leaders, including Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, with Lapid demanding that Smotrich apologise."}],[{"start":272.98,"text":"“Instead of trying to promote agreements that will change the face of the Middle East, members of this government are expressing themselves like the lowest of the tweeters with harmful statements,” Lapid wrote on X."}],[{"start":287.06,"text":"Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington"}],[{"start":300.49,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1761270028_3860.mp3"}