A day after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Israel's strategy is a "political foothold" to expand the state's territory in Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and Gaza, the U.S. State Department refused to address most of his statements and chose to focus only on his remarks about the "political foothold in Judea and Samaria that 'kills the idea of a Palestinian state.'" In a brief response, the State Department told Ynetnews that "as President Donald Trump has made clear, he does not support annexation of the West Bank by Israel."