The US-Israeli dispute over the West Bank: Could it lead to a rift in their relations?!

Although the United States is the primary supporter and main patron of the Israeli occupation state, there is a difference and disparity in vision between the two countries regarding the West Bank and the stance on the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The occupation state sees the West Bank as a fundamental part of its doctrine; it is the Promised Land that God promised them and forbade anyone other than Jews to live there—according to their beliefs. They still refer to it as Judea and Samaria, which means an absolute rejection of the idea of a Palestinian state regardless of its form or reality, and they work towards the idea of displacing the people of the West Bank. At the same time, the American vision is different, even contradictory to this vision. The United States manages the issue and sees the solution based on two states: a (self-governing) disarmed Palestinian state in a very small part of Palestine alongside Israel.

America does not want it to be a sovereign state but rather something like self-rule without weapons except what is necessary for a local police force, while maintaining the Palestinian Authority even if it is weak.

This American vision, although it keeps absolute control for the occupation state over all parts of Palestine, is rejected by Israel because it contradicts its vision of eliminating the authority and the future displacement of the Palestinian people.

America does not give up on its idea of the existence of a Palestinian state, even if it resembles self-rule, which the occupation state completely rejects because its realization means the entire world, especially Western countries, standing with this “state,” working to protect and preserve it, and undermining the idea of total displacement of the Palestinian people. Even the retreat of the local emirate idea (first the Hebron Emirate) was backed by America because it wants to preserve the authority and avoid creating an alternative to it.

However, the difference between the American and Israeli visions regarding the idea of a Palestinian state and the stance on the West Bank does not lead to a rift in their relationship but rather to “tensions” between them from time to time, with each side working to achieve its political vision in dealing with the idea of establishing a “Palestinian state.” Meanwhile, the issue remains fluctuating like water in a skin until God wills what is predestined in the unseen knowledge.