Israel's extreme-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that he hoped Israel would annex the illegally occupied West Bank in 2025. He also said he would push the Netanyahu government to engage the incoming Trump administration in the US to gain their support. Israel's new foreign minister Gideon Saar said separately that while no decision was made, the issue could come up in talks with the future US administration in Washington. Smotrich, who also wields a defence ministry supervisory role for settlers as part of his coalition deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hopes the incoming Trump administration would recognise an Israeli annexation push. Smotrich has for years called for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which is inhabited by Palestinians and was illegally occupied by Israel in 1967. At a meeting of his extremist Religious Zionism faction in parliament on Monday, Smotrich said he had instructed Israeli authorities overseeing West Bank settlements "to begin professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure" for annexation, according to a statement from his office.
