RAMALLAH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians' concerns are growing over a possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump will allow Israel to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank, analysts said.
The Palestinian leadership issued a strong-worded statement this week, warning the U.S. against "playing with fire" by making any decision that would violate the Palestinians rights to establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
"No one has the right and it won't be legal for any measure or decision that affects the Palestinian rights and the international legitimacy," the statement said, adding "such decision would have dangerous consequences and (is) a continuation of playing with fire."
The Palestinian leadership issued the statement after Israeli media reported the efforts exerted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get Trump's support to impose Israeli sovereignty on the big Jewish settlements in the West Bank ahead of the Israeli elections in September.
Experts on Israeli affairs believe that such U.S. support "would boost Netanyahu's position in the upcoming Israeli parliamentary elections to gain more votes among the voters in the Israeli right wing."
Hani al-Masri, chairman of the Ramallah-based Masarat Center for Researches and Studies, told Xinhua on telephone that the current ruling parties in Israel "are heading towards being more fanatic."
Al-Masri said the Israeli hardliners reject the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The only difference among them is whether assert Israeli control over West Bank or only annex the Jewish settlements there.
He predicted that the new Israeli government, if formed by both the political and religious right-wing parties, will act on annexing large parts of the West Bank, such as the large settlements, the Jordan Valley and deepening the isolation of the Palestinian part of Jerusalem.
"I believe that the former Israeli governments, mainly this one, have paved the road politically and legally to annex parts of the West Bank, while Trump's administration seems to be enthusiastic about such a measure," said al-Masri, referring to Trump's one-sided support to Israel.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has earlier stated that the U.S. totally understands Israel's desire to keep parts of the West Bank under its control. Freidman's remarks have been repeated by the U.S. envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt.
The political ties between the Palestinian Authority and the U.S. were severed right after Trump declared in December 2017 that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May last year.
George Jackman, director of the Ramallah-based Institution for Democratic Studies, told Xinhua that over the past two years, the American measures against the Palestinian cause have been increasing and made any political track for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible.
"I believe that Washington has added new complication through trying to impose surrender orders on the Palestinians and to blackmail them, politically and economically, in order to drive them to make concession on their rights and undermine a real opportunity for establishing their state," Jackman said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has earlier announced that the Palestinian leadership decided not to abide by the peace agreements signed between Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel in 1993.
Next month, Israel will hold new parliamentary elections after Netanyahu, who won last time, failed to form a government. The Palestinians are deeply concerned that Netanyahu attempts to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, in order to gain more right-wing votes.
