As Israel braced Monday for a new wave of announcements from countries recognizing Palestinian statehood, several allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged him to immediately annex the occupied West Bank, which could set off a cycle of diplomatic tit-for-tat retaliation between Israel and Western and Arab countries.
Several European countries — led by France and including Belgium and Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino — are scheduled to announce their formal recognition of Palestine at a summit in New York on Monday afternoon, a day after Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal said they would do the same. The high-level meeting is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Netanyahu, who has spent his decades-long political career working to stymie a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, angrily vowed on Sunday that a Palestinian state would never be established. And far-right ministers in his coalition, who are key to the survival of his government and hold vast influence over Israeli policy, urged the prime minister to brush aside the diplomatic pressure, formally absorb the West Bank and squash any hope of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.