US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s decision to stand in the Samaria city of Ariel on Monday and declare that “Judea and Samaria… must remain an integral part” of Israel was far more than a private photo op. It marked the clearest sign yet that today’s Republican leadership is steadily erasing the Green Line from United States policy toward the Jewish state.
Johnson’s visit capped a string of high-level steps taken since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. On his first afternoon back in the Oval Office, Trump revoked Executive Order 14115 and lifted financial sanctions that the previous administration had imposed on a handful of what they called “extremist settlers” accused of West Bank violence.
Less than two weeks later, Sen. Tom Cotton introduced the RECOGNIZING Judea and Samaria Act, a bill that would bar federal agencies from using the term “West Bank” in official documents, replacing it with the biblical term favored by Israel’s settler movement.
In February, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) adopted a resolution urging Washington to “recognize Israel’s sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”
On the same day, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Brian Mast circulated an internal memo instructing Republican staffers to follow suit in all committee correspondence.
Diplomats followed politicians. In a June interview with Bloomberg, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee abandoned the long-standing American goal of an independent Palestinian state, suggesting instead that any eventual Palestinian entity be established “elsewhere in the Arab world.”
The State Department then pivoted its pressure campaign away from settlement violence and toward Ramallah, imposing visa bans on senior Palestinian Authority officials it accused of “internationalizing” the conflict at the International Criminal Court.
Three forces underpin this conservative cartography:
Values politics. Evangelical voters who view the biblical heartland as non-negotiable.
Second, reaction politics. Progressive Democrats’ increasing emphasis on Palestinian rights has prompted GOP leaders to plant ideological flags beyond 1967 lines.
Third, policy entrepreneurship. Officials such as former ambassador to Israel David Friedman and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo paved the way by rewriting labeling rules and funding guidelines. Today’s conservatives are simply finishing the job.
Yet enthusiasm in Washington carries costs in Jerusalem. When support for settlements becomes a partisan talking point, Democrats recoil, and bipartisan backing erodes. Israel risks exchanging a half-century of near-unanimous congressional support for a narrower – but louder – constituency.
Still, the conservative shift offers tangible benefits. The new political space has already opened US state-level investment in mixed industrial zones that span the 1949 armistice line, expanded research cooperation with Ariel University and other institutions once deemed beyond the pale, and sent a strong deterrent message to Iran-backed militias watching America’s resolve.
To maximize these gains while mitigating the hazards, Israel must pursue a strategy of addition, not subtraction.
That means working to retain Democratic support, however critical, by reaffirming shared liberal values; coordinating Johnson-style visits with careful diplomatic briefings for Europe and Sunni Arab allies, and using the breathing room to improve daily life for Israelis and Palestinians alike – rather than simply planting more flags.
Johnson’s declaration in Ariel and Trump’s swift reversal of restrictive West Bank policies have given Israel a diplomatic windfall that previous governments could only imagine. Washington’s conservative leadership has spoken: The biblical heartland is not a bargaining chip but the strategic and moral anchor of the Jewish state.
Israel needs to seize the chance to develop West Bank
Israel must seize this moment. That means accelerating infrastructure, research, and security projects in Judea and Samaria; welcoming additional US congressional delegations beyond the Green Line, and locking in durable trade and defense agreements.
The Trump-Johnson alliance has provided unprecedented political cover, and now Jerusalem must convert it into facts on the ground that strengthen sovereignty and improve daily life for all residents.
Critics will warn of diplomatic storms, yet storms are survived best when one stands on solid rock.
With allies such as Johnson in the speaker’s chair and Trump in the Oval Office, Israel has a rare chance to cement its future openly and unapologetically.
“Be strong and courageous,” Joshua was told. Today, America’s conservatives stand beside us, urging the same resolve. It is an invitation Israel should embrace with confidence.