Sanctions Against Israelis

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"An Israeli sheppard doesn't have US property/bank accounts. So its a message to the world: extremists on both sides, the US is a fair player."

We're talking about what happened today, February 1st, with the implementation of sanctions against Israelis.

What that means is that there are certain Israelis, starting with a list of four, whose U.S. bank accounts could be seized if they have any U.S. property, and they cannot travel to the United States.

Now, what's most interesting about this, to start with, is the timing of it. In the list of the individuals who were sanctioned today, all of their activities that they did — again, it's not really specific, not necessarily even crimes — all the activities they did were not recent. One, for example, was from Hawara, which was about around a year ago.

Why did the Biden administration put out today as the time to release this executive order? So what else happened today? If we take a look at the news, we'll find out that the United States Congress, the House of Representatives, passed a resolution. The resolution says that those who partook in October 7th, those members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, may not enter the United States.

Now, that is mainly symbolic, because the United States can block them by many, many means. Different organizations, the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, can all block individuals from coming in. So it really is a symbolic order.

But what is interesting is that the Biden administration chose the same day to put out their executive order that the House voted on this resolution. Why is that interesting? It's a moral message, or maybe an immoral message, depending on your perspective, that both sides have extremists. On one side, the Israeli extremist is the settler. On the Palestinian side, the Palestinian extremist is Hamas.

So what the administration is trying to do is to say, we have extremists on both ends. And if we're able to curtail or limit or push aside these extremists, then we have an open corridor towards progress, towards peace. We won't get into the merits of the argument, but the timing of the message is noteworthy.

Now, who was sanctioned? So there's a list of four individuals. Of the four individuals, one of them was sanctioned for his actions against another Israeli, not against a Palestinian Arab. So what that means is that the United States is placing sanctions on an individual, on an Israeli, for actions taken in Israel against another Israeli.

The executive order does not list four Israelis. What it does instead is it puts together this framework, the ability to create a blacklist. And on this list, the United States can now start to add, now and in the future, those individuals who cause instability in the West Bank. What that means is not defined. Does it amount to a crime? Does it require a crime? We don't know. It's undefined. The point being, the United States can now pluck, pick and choose individuals to place on this blacklist, on this Jewish list, if we want to be sensational, and impose sanctions against them.

So the next obvious question is, what will Israel do? And the next obvious answer is nothing. So instead, we have to ask, what should Israel do? And in order to get to that answer, we have to suspend a couple of realities.

The first being, of course, is the U.S. military aid to Israel, because as long as that noose is around Israel's neck, or at least as long as the leaders believe that that noose is around their neck, they're unable to function and they're unable to answer. The second notion that we have to suspend is the notion and the understanding that Israeli leadership, including Israeli generals and many Israelis themselves, continue to be beholden to the United States, to Western culture. And with that comes the need to be accepted by the United States. And until that is broken, or changed, or diminished, Israel will continue to have its hands tied and be unable to act accordingly.

So let's take a page out of the Israeli Supreme Court book in order to determine how Israel should respond. So it goes like this. What would a reasonable Knesset do? What would a reasonable prime minister do? What would a reasonable country with self-respect do?

Now, in the diplomatic world, everything is tit-for-tat. What does that mean? You put sanctions on X, we put sanctions on Y. You expel X, we expel Y. The numbers are always the same. So what would a reasonable Israeli government do, of course, would sanction four Americans back. Now, in this case, the Israeli government can very easily these days find four Americans who committed anti-Semitic acts and impose sanctions on them. Of course, that gives too much moral authority to the executive order.

Instead, what Israel could do is pluck four Americans from the American right, from the American left, neo-Nazis, Antifa, and put sanctions on four of them and say to them, you, Antifa member, you, neo-Nazi member, are causing instability in the United States. And therefore, you may not enter Israel, you may not hold an Israeli bank account, and you may not possess property in Israel. Of course, this demonstrates the absurdity and the overreach of this executive order.

Now, the order itself doesn't even have teeth. What does that mean? It means that a non-U.S. citizen, settler, in Yehuda and Shomron, in the West Bank, is likely not going to the United States, is likely not holding a U.S. bank account, is likely not holding U.S. property. And even if this person were to go to the United States Embassy and apply for a visa, he would be rejected anyway with this information publicly available about him.

So the executive order is not necessary for the purpose of the Israeli citizen. So who is the target instead, or who is the target audience? Of course, it's the Biden administration broadcasting to Europe, to the United Nations, to the rest of the world, that the United States is a fair, that's in quotes obviously, is a fair player for both sides.

The executive order is also focused on the United States, meaning the United States left, although that's already an arcane term, because these days I would actually argue that it's focused on the United States mainstream, to show the narrative that there are bad actors on either side, comparing Hamas to the settlers. We won't even bother getting into the merits of such a narrative, because we're analyzing the U.S. approach.

Finally, they're also targeting the Israeli leadership. They're reminding Bibi, they're reminding the generals, they're reminding the Israeli echelon, do not stray to the right. Why? Because the United States is Israel's biggest supporter, and the United States is Israel's best friend, so long as it is the Israel that the United States wants.