Gradual and creeping annexation of the West Bank will sabotage the Trump administration’s plan for Gaza and harm Israeli national security in other ways as well, 600 former Israeli defense officials warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Until Sunday, a series of rules were in place requiring extra approvals from the IDF legal division and Civil Administration, the Palestinian Authority, and others when it came to purchasing or building on land in the West Bank.
On Sunday, the government announced that it was repealing or streamlining many of those rules to make it easier for Jewish Israelis to acquire land in areas where, previously, doing so had been much harder.
According to the group Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), led by former major general Matan Vilnai, and including former heads of the Mossad, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the police, and other top IDF officials, this latest move could anger the US administration and even cause phase two of the Gaza ceasefire to unravel.
“The timing of the decision – on the eve of your meeting with the president of the United States, who has publicly expressed his firm opposition to the annexation of territories – raises questions about the judgment of the cabinet and its leadership,” CIS wrote in a letter.
“Furthermore, your decision may be perceived as yet another attempt to disrupt President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to advance an arrangement for the Gaza Strip, undermining his 20-point plan.”
Former Israeli defense officials warn annexation harms security, peace
The former senior security officials cautioned that the move could also have other negative impacts. They wrote that the move to “privatize land purchases in the West Bank and to take over Palestinian Authority powers in areas A and B represents yet another grave step, demonstrating that your government intends to proceed with annexation of the territories – along with their millions of Palestinian residents.
“In doing so, it endangers Israel’s security, its relations with Diaspora Jewry and with regional peace partners, and its international standing,” they said.
CIS said “these steps toward annexation will severely harm Israel’s security, most immediately due to the need they will drive to deploy IDF forces and Shin Bet assets to protect private property and construction pursued in the absence of full national planning that accounts for security considerations... and this at a time of manpower shortages amid challenges on multiple fronts.”
Moreover, CIS said the country’s security will be harmed as these steps will further undermine the stability of the PA, whose security mechanisms’ activity – in coordination with our forces – against Hamas elements and other terrorist organizations is highly valued by our own security establishment.”
CIS predicted that these moves could lead to the collapse of the PA, further exacerbated by the financial strangulation applied by Netanyahu’s government, and “will saddle both our forces and the national budget with an unbearable burden, given the resulting cost of managing and financing the lives of millions of Palestinians.”
The group asserted that, in the long term, “these moves, combined with the sharp and unabated escalation of Jewish terrorism in the territories, contribute directly to – and will further exacerbate – the radicalization of young Palestinians and thereby to their arming and recruitment into Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”
CIS said the decision has already provoked harsh reactions from Israel’s longstanding peace partners – Egypt and Jordan– and the Abraham Accords community. “Such rebuke has also been sounded by other nations in the region with whom normalization would likely be possible given different Israeli policies and decisions.”
It said that “in pursuing the policies reflected in the cabinet decision, Israel is foregoing the opportunity for a fundamental revolution of its security position: integration into a regional coalition against Iran and other malign actors.”
Despite the warnings and Trump’s opposition to full annexation, his administration has been much more tolerant of small-scale Israeli expansion in the West Bank than prior American administrations.
In addition, while the PA is unquestionably weakened in 2026 compared to earlier years, and it may at some point collapse, to date, it has avoided the collapse that many expected.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich regularly openly calls to end the PA, but Netanyahu has harmed it in various ways without openly toppling it.
While CIS represents a majority opinion in the security establishment, there are plenty of security officials on the other side of the debate, and many centrist political parties do not oppose building in the West Bank, even if they may not encourage it as much as right-wing parties.
The government’s rationale for the new policies is to cut through red tape and long waiting periods for building for Jewish Israelis, some of whom have faced delays of new units being built for years.
While at the 30,000-foot level, these procedures ensured that there were fewer diplomatic surprises between Israel and its Western allies, on the individual level, this heavily delayed Jewish land acquisition, even if there was no specific dispute.
One rule that will be repealed was that Israelis could generally not purchase land in Area A, as set down by the mid-1990s Oslo Accords.
That land was mostly controlled by the PA.
There were also certain limits regarding Areas B (under primary PA control, but less than Area A), and C (under Israeli control but still disputed and mostly unsettled by either side).
Now, if land is available because it is unoccupied, and a Palestinian individual is willing to sell it, there will be less bureaucracy for completing the purchase.