US administration officials have warned Israel that relations between the two countries could deteriorate if Israeli authorities change their policies regarding the management of the territories in the West Bank. The Haaretz newspaper reported this on Friday.
According to its sources, senior Washington administration officials are concerned in particular about a possible change in the status of the Israeli civilian administration in the West Bank, whose authority in the new Israeli government may be transferred from the Defense Ministry to other agencies. The US side has already warned Israel that such a move would damage the US-Israeli relations and complicate cooperation between the two countries on regional security issues, including the Iranian problem, Haaretz reported.
Sources noted that US officials are closely following the negotiations to form a new cabinet in Israel where the far-right Religious Zionism party which has already reached a coalition agreement with Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party is demanding to give its politicians control over the civil administration. This body, in particular, is responsible for the settlement plans in the West Bank.
According to Haaretz sources, US officials have warned their Israeli counterparts in recent weeks against transferring the civil administration from the Defense ministry to other agencies, stressing that the US and other states might interpret such a "change of policy towards the people of the West Bank as a unilateral annexation.
Haaretz sources familiar with the content of conversations between American and Israeli officials said that such an "annexation," in which local Palestinians in the West Bank would be disenfranchised in comparison to Jewish settlers, would lead the US to view the emerging situation there through the lens of racial discrimination, comparing what is happening to apartheid.
Moreover, the paper noted, a possible change in Israel's policy toward the West Bank might be perceived in Washington "as a slap in the face to the United States and its President Joe Biden." "This could potentially lead to a serious deterioration in relations between the two states, which could hurt Israel's preparations for an attack on Iran," Haaretz claims. US officials, the newspaper wrote, warned their Israeli counterparts that the Jewish state "could lose its most important security ally in a negative scenario," adding that Israel, in their assessment, "cannot cope with the security challenges it faces without US support."
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Based on materials from TASS