On a clear day, Tel Aviv’s skyscrapers are visible from the hills above the Israeli settlement of Karnei Shomron in the occupied West Bank.

“I definitely feel like I’m different from Tel Aviv,” said Sondra Baras, who has lived in Kaneshomron for nearly 40 years. “I live where my ancestors lived thousands of years ago. I don’t live in occupied territory; I live in biblical Judea and Samaria.”

For many settlers here, the boundaries between the state of Israel and the territory it seized from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war have been erased from their narratives.

An audio guide for visitors to the mountaintop observation deck describes the West Bank as “a region of Israel” and the Palestinian city of Nablus as the place where God promised the Jewish people the land.

But so far, formal annexation of the territory remains a dream for settlers like Sandra, even as the settlement — deemed illegal by the U.N. Supreme Court and most other countries — continues year after year. Sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Now, with Donald Trump elected as the next president of the United States, many see an opportunity to go even further.

“I’m glad Trump won,” Sandra told me. “I would very much like to expand sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. I feel like that’s something Trump can support.”

There are signs that some in the incoming administration may agree with her.

Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee to be the new ambassador to Israel, expressed support for Israel’s claims to the West Bank in an interview last year.

“When people use the word ‘occupied,’ I say: ‘Yes, Israel is occupying the land, but it is an occupation of the land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. This is their land, ‘” he said.

Yisrael Gantz, chairman of the Regional Settlement Council that oversees Karnei Shomron, said he had noticed that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 triggered With the Gaza war, the tone of the incoming Trump administration has changed.

“Whether it’s in Israel or in the United States, they understand that we have to exercise sovereignty here,” he told me. “It’s a process. I can’t tell you it’s going to happen tomorrow. But it seems to me that the dream of a two-state solution is gone.”

US President Joe Biden has always maintained that the United States supports a future Palestinian state alongside Israel. Asked if he heard a different voice than the incoming Trump administration, Gantz responded: “Absolutely, yes.”

But there are also signs that Israelis who have lobbied for annexation of the West Bank – some of whom hold cabinet positions – may be disappointed with Trump’s decision.

Their hopes are fueled by memories of his first term as president, in which he broke with decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. and international consensus. 1967.

But for Trump, supporting annexation of the West Bank will be a bigger and more difficult issue.

That could alienate another key ally of Washington, Saudi Arabia, complicating Trump’s chances of striking a broader regional deal.

It could also alienate some moderate Republicans in the U.S. Congress who worry about the impact on Palestinians in the West Bank and their future status under Israeli rule.

West Bank Palestinians who don’t want to live in Israel can “go wherever they want,” settler leader Sandra Barras told me.

Asked why they should leave their homes, she said: “I’m not pushing them out, but things have changed. How many wars have they started? They’ve lost.”

“If Sovereignty continues, there’s definitely going to be a lot of yelling and screaming,” she continued. “But at some point, you create an irreversible fact.”

Shortly after Trump won the election last November, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly called for the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“2025 must be the year of sovereignty of Judea and Samaria,” he said.

Whether or not the new U.S. president agrees, many Palestinians say talk of formal annexation misses the point — that Israel has actually annexed the territory here.

One of them is Moheb Salameh. He leads me through the ruins of his home, built on private Palestinian land on the outskirts of Nablus. The building was deemed illegal by an Israeli court last year and was demolished.

As outlined in the Oslo peace accords three decades ago, Israel temporarily has full control over security and planning in 60 percent of the West Bank.

Despite the expansion of settlements, Palestinian housing permits are almost never approved. Lawyers say similar demolitions are on the rise.

“This is all part of the policy that forced us to leave,” Moheb said. “This is a policy of forced immigration. What difference does it make to them (Israelis) whether I build here or not? We are not a threat to them.”

Palestinians are also increasingly being forced from their land by violent Israeli settlers – who are subject to U.S. and British sanctions but largely unchallenged by domestic Israeli courts.

Activists say more than 20 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been evicted in increasingly violent attacks over the past few years, and settlers are now invading new areas beyond Israel’s temporary civilian control.

Moheb told me that no U.S. president has ever protected Palestinians, and he doesn’t believe Donald Trump will.

America’s next president is widely seen as a friend of Israel.

But he was also a man who liked to make deals and avoid conflict.