Once again, Israel’s far right openly challenges Washington’s pursuit of peace. This time, it strikes at the very core of President Donald Trump’s Middle East vision. While President Trump declares that his plan to halt the Gaza war “may bring eternal peace to the Middle East,” the Knesset plants a time bomb in the region’s heart by advancing a preliminary reading of a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank.

Pushed by Israel’s far right, the approval lands at a critically sensitive moment. As US Vice President JD Vance visited Tel Aviv to anchor the Gaza war’s end, Israel’s far right sent Washington a clear message: it has no interest in advancing Trump’s plan to resolve a conflict more than seven decades old.

This escalation initiated by the Israeli far right poses an internal challenge for the US administration: How will Trump and his national security team respond to a move that undercuts the very course the president himself pledged? On September 25, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he would not allow the annexation of the West Bank: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank, I will not allow that, this will not happen”.

The Knesset’s move sends a second message to the region, casting doubt on the plan’s efficacy. It suggests that the Israeli right-wing government’s agreement to end the war in Gaza was not a genuine commitment to a political path but rather a maneuver to sidestep public pressure and the demands of hostages’ families desperate for their release.

The third message targets the rejectionists: Israel’s far right hands them yet another excuse to oppose any settlement process. As Tel Aviv advances measures that legitimize further seizure of West Bank land, it becomes hard to argue that Gaza’s endgame opens a path to ending the conflict.

If the far right pushes the bill through, the very foundation of the “Trump peace plan” will falter. Regional partners would face a real dilemma: How do they back a two-state negotiating narrative while the would-be Palestinian state is being carved up on the ground? It renders the solution a mere illusion with no realistic foundations.

If the far right pushes the West Bank annexation bill through, the very foundation of the “Trump peace plan” will falter. Regional partners would face a real dilemma

For regional partners, the West Bank is a decisive issue, one that outweighs their differences over Hamas, political Islam, and Tehran’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. They stand against annexation and in favor of the Palestinian Authority’s legitimacy, acknowledging the need for reform and restructuring. However, any move toward annexation would jeopardize the fragile consensus and thrust the regional alignments back to square one.

Neighbors know too well the far right’s incremental annexation playbook. Sovereignty is extended to parts, then more parts, until the very possibility of a Palestinian state all but disappears. We have seen this since the 1993 Oslo Accords: the agreement has become ink on paper, while the settler population has repeatedly doubled over the past two decades.

Signatories to the Abraham Accords have drawn a red line on West Bank annexation. Annexation threatens the accords themselves and freezes any move toward normalization with Saudi Arabia, which is driving a return to a two-state solution and recognition of Palestinian statehood. Pursuing annexation raises the stakes not only for the Palestinians but also for core American interests across the region.

Any Israeli push into the West Bank places Washington in a real dilemma: how can it promote a peace process and ask Arab capitals to back it while Tel Aviv takes steps that contradict it? This is where President Trump must strike a delicate balance between historic support for Israel and a credible commitment to Palestinian rights. Israel’s wayward course erodes Washington’s ability to marshal allies and casts doubt on its regional leadership.

After the ceasefire in Gaza, the scene has shifted from war management to geography. What looked like an “end of the fighting” is turning into field engineering that alters facts on the ground in the West Bank. With this move, the window of politics closes before it even opens, and the causes of the conflict are reproduced using various tools.

Now the onus falls on the US administration to curb the Israeli far-right’s momentum and prevent the collapse of post-Gaza fragility. Complex processes such as ending Hamas’s rule and disarming it have not even begun, while the seeds of failure of the ‘Trump plan’ are already germinating. The Knesset’s latest move compounds the complexity. Who will press Hamas to disarm or shore up the PA’s legitimacy if Tel Aviv signals that the conflict remains open and the Palestinian statehood chapter is closed for Israel?

Now the onus falls on the US administration to curb the Israeli far-right’s momentum and prevent the collapse of post-Gaza fragility

Mr. President, you have long cast yourself as a peacemaker who seeks a historic achievement etched into your legacy as the president who unties the Middle East’s Gordian Knot. Yet Israel’s far right sets trap after trap, undermining any chance of a political path to that goal.

Mr. Trump, protect your legacy, not just for the sake of peace, but also for the trustworthiness of the American leadership. If Washington fails to rein in its allies and leaves a strategic vacuum that others will rush to fill, your legacy will not be eternal peace. It will be remembered as the beginning of a retreat that could have been averted.

Mr. Trump, simply put, if you fail to curb Israel’s far right, no president after you will ever dare to attempt another peace plan, and US interests will not be spared from the fallout of the time bomb now being planted.

Mr. Trump, protect your legacy, not just for the sake of peace, but also for the trustworthiness of the American leadership