IDF Planning for Annexation Scenarios

When, or how, or even if, annexation will come, hangs uncertainly in the air, but the IDF has been drawing up contingency plans.

The Israeli military is preparing for the possibility of massive Palestinian unrest, Channel 12 reported Sunday night, including what it’s labeled a potential “state of war” in Yehudah and Shomron, with shootings and suicide bombings.

The indecision on the civilian side, as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other senior officials are still trying to work out how to actually implement an extension of sovereignty, has left IDF planners “working in a fog,” the network said.

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told reporters last week that the joint U.S.-Israeli mapping team was still in the middle of formulating a “technical map” to guide the decision-making.

Three scenarios are on top of the pile, according to the report:

The first would involve mass protests by Palestinians; the second, shooting attacks in Yehudah and Shomron; the third, chas v’shalom, a return to the waves of suicide bombings that marked the Second Intifada in 2000-2004.

And, just in case annexation goes through peacefully, the army is ready for that too.

A meeting of Israeli leaders with Ambassador David Friedman on Sunday that lasted several hours reportedly ended without any conclusion on the way forward. No maps were presented. Another meeting is to be held on Monday.