Annexation agenda escalates West Bank conflict

The Palestinian Authority health ministry said Dec. 1 that the Israeli armed forces killed four Palestinians in an air-strike on the village of Siir, in Jenin district of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that day that Israeli forces were "preventing our teams from reaching the bombing site," declaring it a "closed military zone." (TNA) Two days later, an Israel Defense Forces drone strike near the village of Aqaba in the Jordan Valley left two dead. The IDF again reportedly prevented ambulances from reaching the site. (JNS)

Two days after that, Dec. 5, fire-fights erupted in Jenin as PA security forces responded to the theft of two of their vehicles. A PA statement said "a group of outlaws opened fire on the headquarters of the security services" and stole the two vehicles. Despite the designation of "outlaws," the vehicles were reportedly paraded through the streets by a band flying the flags of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. (ToI)

This all comes a week after the IDF carried out raids in towns and villages across the West Bank, raids, detaining 15 Palestinians including a child. (TNA) 

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has meanwhile introduced legislation to bar use of the term "West Bank" by the US government in favor of the Israeli designation "Judea & Samaria." Dubbed the "Retiring Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel's Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea & Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea & Samaria) Act," the bill would require all official US documents and materials "to use the historically accurate term 'Judea and Samaria,'" according to a statement from is office. "The Jewish people's legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel." (JP)

The bill unequivocally demonstrates support by the incoming Trump team for Israel's annexationist agenda on the West Bank, which is actually already in progress.    

Cotton has also sought to impeach President Biden over the "pause" the White House has imposed on some arms shipments to Israel, and sent a threatening letter to the International Criminal Court prosecutor over the warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.