Time for Israeli Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria?
Western powers are standing line abreast for a major showdown with tiny Israel. Their insistent and impassioned plea? Justice for Palestine, which, at long last, means the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Israeli-controlled regions of Judea and Samaria.
Sovereignty Movement
How will Israel respond to the unrelenting diplomatic and social pressures to yield its heartland and the measure of security it offers? A growing number of Israeli leaders, backed by a majority of their citizenry, are taking action to counter the threat with a call for the immediate extension of Israeli law over Judea and Samaria. This is indicative of a renewal of the sovereignty movement in Israel bolstered by a revival of Jewish fidelity in the nations.
The Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported that on July 21, hundreds of Israelis, including ministers and lawmakers, gathered at the Knesset (parliament) for a summit focused on advancing sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. They demanded the government immediately extend full Israeli law over lands captured in the Six-Day War.
“We now have an Israeli government that is committed to sovereignty,” one of the MKs told JNS, “We cannot have better partners in the White House, and we should use this—we should not lose this opportunity…we must implement sovereignty over Judea and Samaria to correct the current situation, in which the heart of the Land of Israel—its biblical heart—is still not under our sovereignty.”
Gaining Momentum
The movement is steadily gaining momentum. Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich directed his office to prepare “practical plans” for Israeli sovereignty over the region. He even instructed the Defense Ministry’s Settlement Administration to “formulate an operational plan for applying sovereignty.”
“We will not stop until the entire area receives its full legal status and becomes an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” Smotrich said.
Back in May, Knesset lawmakers passed a nonbinding motion declaring their support for the extension of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria: “These parts of the Land are inseparable from the homeland of the Jewish people, in light of the broad Israeli consensus against a Palestinian state, and to prevent the recurrence of the October 7 disaster, applying Israeli law is a moral and necessary step for security and the realization of the Zionist vision.”
It’s hardly a novel idea for Israel to annex its ancient territories. In 1967, the IDF liberated Judea and Samaria—including Jerusalem—from the illegal Jordanian occupation and the Golan Heights from Syria’s stranglehold on the region. In 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he was ready to move on extending sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, but backed off as Arab nations conditioned the Abraham Accords proceeding on there being no annexation. In an ironic twist, the Accords are resuming, and Israel could really use some Arab cooperation in the face of the West’s opposition.
What about the Palestinians?
Beyond enduring the storm of world criticism with the weaponized word annexation being slung at Israel, the obvious question Israel must answer is, “What about the Palestinians?”
There are potential solutions other than the much-championed two-state one. Israeli attorney, author and war council advisor Caroline Glick supports Israeli sovereignty over the entire Judea and Samaria or West Bank, envisioning a screening process for Israeli citizenship for many Palestinians living in affected areas. Since not all Palestinians would desire Israeli citizenship or be eligible, Glick’s vision is to see Arab neighbors—probably through the Abraham Accords—coming to the table with citizenship for these who have endured Arab statelessness far too long. These could be allowed to live either as expatriates in sovereign Israel or assisted to relocate to the lands of their new citizenship.
Glick explains in a 2020 Newsweek interview that Israel cannot “annex” Judea and Samaria since annexation is when one state imposes its sovereignty over another’s territory. She argues that the State of Israel has sovereign rights to Judea and Samaria by force of its Declaration of Independence together with Britain’s surrender of the League of Nations Mandate to reconstitute the ancient Jewish national home. By this reasoning, Israel is the one and only entity that has sovereignty over all the Mandate’s territory. Glick concludes, “When Israel applies its civilian law, it will be exercising sovereign rights that it has held for decades.”
Death of the Two-State Solution
In a July 13 Jerusalem Post opinion piece, Aliza Pilichowski reflected the growing sentiment among Israelis toward the two-state solution: “After years of Palestinian terrorism and intransigence, culminating in the October 7 massacre, the Palestinians have forfeited their claim to a state on Israeli territory. They don’t get to start a war, lose the war, and then claim a new state as a prize.”
Podcaster and firebrand Yishai Fleischer poignantly addresses the matter on his website: “Everything west of the Jordan River is our ancestral homeland. Settlements are budding nascent communities…it is [not] just or wise to give up our ancestral homeland, which is also our strategic highlands. We are not going to divide them into a sub-state structure. They should be united and shouldn’t succumb to jihadism dressed as liberalism.”
Battle Lines
And so, the battle lines of diplomacy are drawn. Will the West force a Palestinian state on the region, or will Israel succeed with sovereignty? We watch and pray—and speak to our elected representatives!
Let’s let Michael Freund leave us with these stirring words from his May 30, 2025 Jerusalem Post opinion piece: “From the hills of Judea to the shores of Gaza, the Land of Israel echoes with the footsteps of our prophets and kings. No foreign decree can or will sever that bond. So let’s finally extend Israeli sovereignty over Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and lay claim to what is eternally ours.”
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