Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that he didn't want to push the issue of Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank during US Vice President Vance's visit, Israeli public broadcaster KAN News reported on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister's Office reportedly expressed to Smotrich that the US does not want Israel to annex the West Bank. "When the vice president, Vance, is visiting here, you don’t stick a finger in his eye,” Netanyahu's office reportedly said in a message to Smotrich.
This comes after the Knesset approved a bill by MK Avi Maoz (Noam) to apply Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank on Wednesday, contrary to Netanyahu's position.
'It’s not up to me,' Smotritch says
Smotrich reportedly told Netanyahu that he "would have waited until next week, but it’s not up to me."
KAN noted that Smotrich has been annoyed at what he feels is Netanyahu's lack of response to several European nations' recognition of a Palestinian state and the sanctions imposed on Israeli ministers and senior officials.
Coalition sources told KAN that if the legislation introduced by MK Maoz had failed, it would not be reintroduced for six months.
In response to MK Avigdor Liberman's "Application of Sovereignty in Ma’aleh Adumim" bill passing on Wednesday, Smotrich called on Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.
"Mr. Prime Minister, the Knesset has spoken. The people have spoken. The time has come to apply full sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria, our ancestral inheritance, and to advance peace-for-peace agreements with our neighbors from a position of strength," Smotrich said in a statement.
Also on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Donald Trump would not support any annexation in the West Bank.
"They passed a vote in the Knesset, but the president [Donald Trump] has made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now," he told reporters on the tarmac before boarding his flight to depart for Israel. "We think there’s potential for it to threaten the peace deal."