March 28, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  That departure from U.S. and international norms will weaken both Israeli and Arab incentives to seek peace.

By rebooting American expectations, the Trump administration is revising Israeli calculations. For Israeli annexationists, the sky is now the limit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is surrounded by people in his own Likud party and among his coalition partners who favor annexing parts of the West Bank, notably the areas on the western side of a separation wall built since 2002 along with major settlement blocs and the Jordan River valley.

Last year, Likud endorsed the de facto annexation of many Israeli settlements. So did the Knesset before being restrained by cooler heads, including Netanyahu himself.

Whoever wins the upcoming Israeli election, the drive towards annexation in the West Bank is likely to pick up speed. What argument is left against it?

Until now, that argument was decisively made by history and international law.