TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM — Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers toward that end looked like a stupid “political stunt”.

A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of a territory that Palestinians seek for part of a future independent state, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday.

Asked by reporters about the vote, Vance said: “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”

Vance spoke after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that steps toward annexing the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, could endanger Tru

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