Underestimating the risks of annexation

NINE MEN and one woman have led Israel since the six-day war of 1967 brought the West Bank under its control. Nearly all thought it too risky to annex any of the territory beyond East Jerusalem. True, Israel has built scores of settlements since the war, so that more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, alongside 3m Palestinians. But its leaders calculated that annexation would bring global opprobrium, destabilise the region and doom the two-state solution—the idea that a Palestinian state and a Jewish one might one day peacefully co-exist.Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister today, thinks he knows better. Last year he wooed hawkish voters by vowing to absorb a handful of settlements and the entire Jordan Valley. Then, in January, President Donald Trump released a peace plan that would give Israel 30% of the West Bank. The Palestinians, unsurprisingly, rejected it. But Mr Netanyahu wants to proceed with annexation (see ). He is underestimating the costs and moving Israel closer to a fateful choice about its future.