As the news of Trump's appointments comes in, it's clear from the reactions of certain far-right extremist ministers in Israel that they see this presidency as an opportunity to fulfill their annexationist visions and create a one-state reality of Jewish supremacy from the river to the sea.
The celebratory social media posts, the fact that Netanyahu was amongst the first world leaders to call and congratulate Trump, even boasting that they'd spoken five times over three days, all point to an extremist and emboldened Israeli government fast-tracking their annexationist goals.
Earlier this week, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that his office is already working "to prepare the necessary infrastructure for the application of sovereignty [over the occupied West Bank.]"
Netanyahu also wasted no time seizing on the opportunity of this second Trump presidency, firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and naming Yechiel Leiter the next US Ambassador. Leiter has been active in promoting the establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank since the '80s and was one of the first residents of Admot Yishai, a Jewish settlement in Hebron.
On this side of the ocean, Trump has named Mike Huckabee as US Ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, an Evangelical Christian, is a known supporter of Israel's annexation of the occupied West Bank, once said that there is "no such thing as a Palestinian" and has expressed a desire to live in a West Bank settlement.
We must remember that annexation of the occupied West Bank has been happening now for decades, under various US and Israeli governments. Under a second Trump presidency, the actions in the territories may not look all that different from what we've been seeing. What will be different is that, given the groundwork already laid, the final steps toward annexation, combined with a US administration willing to turn a blind eye at best, or openly support at worst, can happen rapidly.
It is also possible that, with a campaign promise to end wars and restore peace, Trump may allow for more aggressive actions by the Israeli government in the occupied West Bank in exchange for winding down the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.
It is perplexing, though perhaps not surprising, that Trump and his appointees are often referred to as "pro-Israel." This binary definition of the term labels people who blindly support the current Israeli government as "pro-Israel", despite their actions being anything but.
After all, if the promise of Israel is a secure, Jewish, democratic homeland, the annexation of the occupied West Bank, with millions of Palestinians deprived of the same rights as the Israeli Jews living in the settlements beside them, is intrinsically undemocratic.
And that undemocratic rule will be the only way to maintain a Jewish character in the state, as demographically, the entirety of the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is not majority Jewish.
What these individuals are, therefore, is not pro-Israel at all, but rather, pro-Judea. The vision of Judea, of a messianic, "Greater Israel" is not only the antithesis of the Zionist dream, but also goes against the version of Israel that so many of us were taught in our Canadian Jewish Hebrew schools, summer camps, and synagogues.
Indeed, Jewish establishment organizations are no longer going to be able to hide under a facade of neutrality, or of being apolitical, because there are now two distinct versions of Israel on the table, and every Jewish organization is going to have to choose the one they support.
Therefore, we should be precise in our language and name individuals, leaders, and organizations as they are - are they "pro-Israel" - that is to say, in support of Israel as a liberal democracy, one that upholds the rights of all its citizens, adheres to international law, and unambiguously defines its borders, or are they "pro-Judea" - supporting a messianic theocracy that disenfranchises millions of civilians based on ethnicity alone.
For all the talk both before and after October 7 of unity and coming together as a Jewish community, there should be nothing more easily unifying and no issue around which we should all be able to rally than the preservation of the Zionist dream - of Israel as a secure, Jewish, and democratic homeland of the Jewish people.
Those unable or unwilling to do so as this Israeli government and its political interlocutors in the US make their plans abundantly clear are decidedly not pro-Israel, and their neutrality is not neutrality at all - it is implicitly pro-Judea.
It is most unfortunate that in their zeal to support Israel, they are actually leading to its demise - Palestinians, Israelis, hostages, and the Zionist dream be damned.