Peloni: As the US comes to wage economic war upon its allies as well as its enemies, it would only serve to increase the already disparaging view of allegiance to the US dollar. I would argue that even the report that such sanctions were being considered against Israel will have a detrimental effect upon the already frayed trust in the American monetary system, just as I would also argue that this will likely not be the end of the US consideration of this policy in the coming months.
The Biden admin is desperate to stop Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
by Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine February 16, 2024
The Biden administration has a plan for the Hamas-Israel war. It’s the same plan that past administrations have unleashed on Israel. Pressure Netanyahu or whoever is in office into ignoring voters and conservative members of his coalition, push him into making a deal with the Islamic terrorists, and go back to advocating for a terrorist state. The problem is that things fundamentally changed in Israel on Oct 7 even if they didn’t change in D.C.
When the Biden administration wanted Israel to stop its offensive at the end of 2023, it didn’t get its wish. Now it’s fighting to keep Israel from going into Rafah and finishing off Hamas in its last stronghold.
So the Biden administration has ramped up a pressure campaign, much of it under the radar, but that is playing out across various fronts. The administration has enabled the “monitoring” of Israeli attacks on Hamas for “human rights violations” in a way that may trigger a shutoff of arms sales. It also tested the waters by sanctioning four Israeli Jewish activists for allegedly harassing terrorists and their supporters.
This was a trial balloon and it looks like the Biden administration is preparing to escalate.
The United States is considering imposing sanctions on Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the US was preparing a package of sanctions that would include actions taken against the two far-right ministers who are influential members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
The sanctions were considered amid exacerbated tensions between the US and Israel due to Washington’s insistence that Israel refrain from carrying out a full-fledged invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sanctioning cabinet members of an allied government would be unprecedented, but apparently, that was Plan A and still on the backburner.
Last month, the U.S. administration was considering enacting a package meant to send a message of discontent to Israel.
The package, U.S. officials said, would have included a reversal of two Trump-era policies: one that allows products made in Jewish settlements in the Israel-occupied West Bank to be labeled as being “Made in Israel,” and another that upended longstanding U.S. policy that the West Bank settlements violate international law.
U.S. officials said they were also considering imposing sanctions on two influential members of Netanyahu’s right-wing government: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Taken together, U.S. officials said, the package could have sent a strong message of discontent. But, in the end, the Biden administration only enacted sanctions against four largely unknown Israeli settlers, once again tempering the Biden administration’s response.
Leaking this to the media however, makes it clear that the Biden administration is preparing to escalate to stop Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
The glaring open question here is: what is hidden under the border to Egypt that makes the Israeli offensive so worrying to the USA, EU, Egypt, S. Arabia and others, but doesn’t seem to bother Russia or China?