Arab envoy warns Israelis that annexation threatens warming ties
New York Times

“In a watershed article in a leading Israeli newspaper, a top diplomat from the United Arab Emirates warned the Israeli public on Friday (June 12) that unilateral annexation of West Bank territory would endanger Israel’s warming ties with Arab countries. Writing in Friday’s Yediot Ahronot, Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirates’ ambassador to the United States, appealed directly to Israelis in Hebrew to deter Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from following through on his promise to annex occupied territory as early as next month.” 

Image: The West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Efraim on the slopes of the Jordan Valley in February. (Ariel Schalit/Associated Press)

Questioning the Covenant
Jewish Currents

“In 2009, Reverend Mae Elise Cannon, on her first trip to the Holy Land, stood on the Allenby Bridge waiting to cross into Jericho from Jordan, where she and her church group had just explored Petra. The evangelical pastor approached the Israeli border patrol agent, who asked if she intended to travel into the West Bank. Cannon was flummoxed. She knew she was headed to Bethlehem, where Jesus lived and ministered. But the West Bank? ‘I said ‘no,’ because I didn’t even know what it was,’ Cannon recalled. Cannon was raised in a politically conservative Christian home, where she was taught to love Israel and the Jewish people.”

Image: The steeple of a Franciscan convent in the Aida refugee camp, near the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank. (Ryan Rodrick Beiler)

Biden adviser says Israeli annexation would be a 'huge mistake'
Haaretz

“A foreign policy adviser for Joe Biden has warned that Israeli annexation of West Bank lands would be ‘a huge mistake.’ Nicholas Burns told The Arena, the online magazine of the Abba Eban Institute for International Diplomacy, that annexation ‘is the one issue which could most harm the U.S.-Israel relationship.’ As well as serving as a foreign policy adviser to Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee in the November election, Burns is a Harvard professor, and served as secretary of state for political affairs under President George W. Bush after serving as U.S. ambassador to NATO.” 

Image: Joe Biden speaks during a round table on economic reopening with community members in Philadelphia, June 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

House Democrats push new letter aimed at unifying the party behind an anti-West Bank annexation message to Israel
JTA

“House Democrats have put together a letter that they hope will unite their entire caucus in warning Israel against annexation of part of the West Bank. The letter, now circulating among the party’s House caucus and obtained exclusively by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, warns Israel about the dangers annexation would pose to Israelis and to the region. But it does not hint at any danger to the U.S.-Israel relationship and restates the signers’ commitment to the relationship.”

Image: Representative Ted Deutch, D-Fla., speaks in Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 2020. He is one of four authors of the letter. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Israel builds road to link settlements as West Bank annexation nears
Y-Net News

“Construction is under way on a major new ring road for Jerusalem that Israeli officials say will benefit all of its residents, but critics of the project say is another obstacle to Palestinian hopes to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state. The bypass, called The American Road, will connect Jewish settlements in the West Bank that are north and south of Jerusalem. The central and southern sections of the road are already being built, and tenders for the northernmost stretch ‘at a projected cost of $187 million’ will be issued toward the end of the year, a Jerusalem municipality official said on condition of anonymity."

Image: An aerial view shows a section of The American Road, an Israeli ring road being built near the Palestinian neighbourhood of Umm Tuba in East Jerusalem. (Reuters)

Israel OKs plan for new Golan settlement named after Trump
AP News

“An Israeli cabinet minister on Sunday (June 14) said the government approved plans to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights named after President Donald Trump. Settlements Minister Tzipi Hotovely wrote on Facebook that her ministry will start preparations for Ramat Trump — Hebrew for ‘Trump Heights’ — to house 300 families. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. Most of the international community considers the move, and Israeli settlements in the territory, illegal under international law.”

Image: June 16, 2019, file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, his wife Sara, United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, left, and his wife Tammy pose. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)