Netanyahu’s threat to invade West Bank would test America’s dwindling patience for Israeli conflict

The murder of two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank is the jumping-off point for a large-scale invasion of the Palestinian territory, a move that would further test the nation’s fraying relationship with the United States.In the wake of the soldiers’ deaths on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising to search and seize Palestinian properties in a counterterrorism campaign “exactly like in Gaza.” President Donald Trump and his administration, already frustrated and fatigued by Israeli hostility in the region and the long-standing Gazan conflict, are unlikely to be thrilled by that announcement.“If [Netanyahu] does escalate significantly and we do find [Israeli] soldiers going house to house, it would be Bibi taking some significant risks at a moment where those risks would be inadvisable,” Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. Israeli soldiers and emergency personnel gather near ambulances following a shooting attack carried out by Palestinian gunmen Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at a junction near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) “We need to see whether the rhetoric matches reality,” Schanzer said. ”This is election time. … He has to say certain things right now to ensure that his population continues to believe that he is ‘Mr. Security,’ so to speak.”Israelis go to the polls on Tuesday.The West Bank went into lockdown Friday after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli soldiers near the city of Hebron. The attack sparked a gunfight that lasted approximately 10 minutes before both gunmen were killed. Israeli military officials identified two soldiers killed in the exchange — Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20. Israeli authorities claim that an initial investigation indicated the duo was attempting to reach the Route 35 highway, where they would be able to attack Israeli civilians but were forced to alter plans by a temporary checkpoint.Netanyahu said he is “considering a very extensive [Israeli military] operation in Judea and Samaria,” using the Israeli government’s term for the West Bank. The prime minister framed it as the largest operation in the region since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war that brought it under Israeli control.“Our first step will be to demolish this site and completely transform it,” the prime minister said, claiming that the Israeli military “will enter the neighborhoods from which the terrorists emerged, evacuate the residents, go house-to-house, and dismantle the terror infrastructure.”A new, large-scale military campaign in the West Bank would also undoubtedly pour fuel on international outrage and may alienate one of its only remaining allies.Vice President JD Vance offered perhaps the most explicit assessment of U.S. frustrations toward Jerusalem in June. After Israeli officials voiced opposition to attempting a U.S.-led ceasefire with Iran, he warned them not to cross “the only powerful ally” they have “anywhere left in the entire world.”“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said. “The problem for Israel is not Donald J. Trump, and anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in.”Israel is suffering a worldwide collapse in support due to its conflict in Gaza and a surge of settler violence that has gone largely unpunished. A recent Pew Research Center survey across 36 countries found a median of 67% of adults had a negative perception of the state, compared to only 25% who reported positive feelings.Trump endorsed the Israeli leader this week after months of demurring, and the announcement came just days before the national elections that will decide the prime minister’s future.Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks to the media at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by Palestinian gunmen Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at a junction near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Two days prior, an American journalist was severely beaten by Israeli settlers in the West Bank as they were attacking a group of local Palestinians. Ultra-Zionist settlers have been extensively documented utilizing violence, vandalism, and even murder to expand Israeli compounds and push Palestinian locals away. European diplomats have suffered similar confrontations while visiting the West Bank.“We’re very disturbed by those images and what we’re seeing,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week after the incident. “We’ve asked the Israelis and continue to ask them to crack down on that stuff.”Even U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, among the most zealous defenders of the Jewish state in American politics, called the incident a “despicable act of terror” and repeated recent calls for violent settlers to be arrested.When the United Kingdom and 11 other countries signed on to sanctions against West Bank settlements last month, the White House stayed uncharacteristically quiet.But Netanyahu and officials in his Cabinet have repeatedly dismissed these complaints and demands, insisting that the problem of wanton settler violence is, in reality, a “handful of juvenile delinquents” and a marginal issue.Schanzer told the Washington Examiner that the Israeli government will need to find a balance between investigating any coordinated terrorist networks in the West Bank involved in the shootout and avoiding a backlash from the local population.Netanyahu “doesn’t want an explosion in the West Bank on the eve of an election,” Schanzer explained. “The idea of creating another front is not attractive, nor is the idea of stoking some kind of explosion three days before the election. That’s just not tenable for him.”World leaders’ reactions to the West Bank incident and Netanyahu’s response have been slow to emerge, but a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. executive is “extremely alarmed” by the “intensifying violence that we’re seeing in the occupied West Bank.”The secretary-general expressed specific concern over “the widespread closures imposed by Israel on the Palestinian community.”National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir suggested Friday that the “Palestinian Authority must be dismantled” because it is “impossible for there to be an authority within Judea and Samaria that incites murder, calls for murder, and works for murder.”There is no publicly available evidence that the PA, the West Bank’s Palestinian-led government, was involved in the attacks.In a possible sign the prime minister could be aware of even more of an international backlash, Netanyahu acknowledged Israel could be facing banking sanctions in the future.Speaking to Israel’s Channel 10, Netanyahu revealed he has directed officials to plan involving blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to help circumvent hypothetical sanctions.“We need to understand that there could be banking sanctions,” Netanyahu said. “You need to prepare an alternative economic system, and you know what that is, and you know which currencies can bypass this, and I’m working on that as well.”Additionally, he warned that Israel would need to be prepared for the day U.S. aid dried up.‘PALESTINE ACTION’ GROUP PROMOTES VIOLENT ATTACKS IN US AND CLAIMS TERRORISM SANCTIONS CAN’T STOP IT“If you think we’re going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that’s tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won’t happen, because America has changed,” Netanyahu said.A State Department official told the Washington Examiner that “the U.S. government continues to strongly condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank. We remain in regular dialogue with partners in the region and support the pursuit of stability and security.”