From Eugene Kontorovich:
“The new sanctions tools against Israelis announced by the Biden Administration is not about settler violence. First, it does not require acts of violence – anyone vaguely involved in doing or not doing anything the WH thinks undermines “peace” and “security” in WB qualifies.
As to violence, the language of the Order does applies to anyone complicit in acts of violence in WB – which should mean the entire PA government should have their accounts frozen because of Pay-for-Slay, which federal law has already determined to be complicity in violence. But we know that won’t happen, because this is really a set of sanctions on Jews the Administration doesn’t like – a revolting response to Oct. 7th.
It will be a massive focus of lobbying by far left groups to target pretty much any Israeli entity in the West Bank, as they see them all as undermining “security.” This and a Palestinian state is how Biden plans to get reelected.”
Order states that such acts of violence ‘undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution.’
US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order declaring a national emergency to deal with the “threat posed by the situation in the West Bank, including in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction.”
The State Department has listed the four individuals who will be subject to the sanctions: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi.
According to the State Department Chasdai initiated and led a riot, which involved setting vehicles and buildings on fire, assaulting Palestinian civilians, and causing damage to property in Huwara, which resulted in the death of a Palestinian civilian.
Tanjil was involved in assaulting Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs, resulting in injuries that required medical treatment.
The State Department stated that according to video evidence, Zicherman assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in Judea and Samaria, blocking them on the street, and attempted to break the windows of passing vehicles with activists inside. Zicherman cornered at least two of the activists and injured both.
Regarding Levi, the State Department stated that he “led a group of settlers who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank. He regularly led groups of settlers from the Meitarim Farm outpost that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property. Levi and other settlers at Meitarim Farm have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank.”
Biden wrote at the beginning of the order that he finds that the “situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region.”
According to him “These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom. They also undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional destabilization across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests.”
According to the White House, the order will allow the United States to issue financial sanctions against those directing or participating in certain actions, including acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destroying or seizing property, or engaging in “terrorist activity” in Judea and Samaria.
The White House added that the State Department will also be announcing an initial set of designations under the new order.
The White House also stated that the order seeks “to promote peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the executive order: “The overwhelming majority of Judea and Samaria residents are law-abiding citizens, many of them are currently fighting in active and reserve duty to defend Israel.
“Israel acts against all lawbreakers everywhere, and therefore there is no place for special steps on the matter.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented: “The time has come for America to rethink its policy in Judea and Samaria. President Biden is mistaken when it comes to the heroic citizens of Israel and residents of Judea and Samaria. The ones who are attacked, the ones who are pelted with stones in attempts to harm and murder them, are the heroic settlers of Judea and Samaria.”
Earlier in the day, Axios Journalist Barak Ravid reported that the Biden administration considered including Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the list of people to be sanctioned, but eventually decided to leave them out and focus at this stage on people who perpetrated attacks.
Religious Zionism Chairman, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich responded to the reports of the sanctions: “The ‘violence campaign’ is an anti-Semitic lie spread by Israel’s enemies, aimed at discrediting and harming the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, thereby disputing the existence of the entire State of Israel. This is an anti-moral BDS campaign that turns the victim into the aggressor and permits Jewish blood. It’s a shame that the Biden administration is cooperating with this at a time when Jews are paying a heavy price in blood and losing the best of their sons in the war in Gaza,” he said.
“With God’s help, I will continue to act fearlessly to strengthen and promote Jewish life in all parts of the Land of Israel and strive for sustainable peace, which will only be achieved when the Arabs’ hope for the establishment of an Arab state on the ruins of the Jewish homeland is dashed. If the price of this is the imposition of American sanctions on me – then so be it.”
@Laura
Very nicely stated.
In fact, the problem which Israel faces are a product of American policies. From the TSS to the support of the Mullahs in Iran, the US govt has fostered these twin threats against Israel, integrating them each as a condition of Israel’s survival, even as they each foster an existential threat to Israel’s survival. The Israeli people have tasted the fruit of such foolish policies, with every terror attack over the past decades culminating in the savagery of October 7. It is time for such dedication to folly to be set aside, and a path to a more responsible future to be forged in its place. I am quite convinced that the Israeli people are determined to pursue such a path, and as the true sovereigns of their own destiny, i am further convinced that they will maintain or find such leadership as will be needed to achieve this goal.
Why are my comments not posting?
Actually, the US government has prevented Israel from solving its problems over the decades, forcing it to compromise with genocidal enemies. In any case, the money provided to Israel, which is actually loans which they must use to buy American Planes, tanks etc. represents a pittance of the overall US budget. Rather we should put the trillions spent for the misnamed “infrastructure” bill in the trashcan if we want to save money.
“Military Government”
“What’s your opinion, sir, of the military government?”
“What’s yours?”
“Thank you! That’s an answer of sorts! You have no clear view!”
“I beg your pardon…”
“I’m trying to look at this from a Jewish point of view.”
“That’s all right with me.”
“I remember only too well, sir, what Jewry went through during the holocaust! I am literally ashamed to think that it is now us who are locking up our minorities in ghettoes!”
“I am sorry to say that’s true.”
“Don’t be so sorry for them! After all, they are our sworn enemies!”
“Right. They hate our guts, every last one of them.”
“II beg your pardon! Why shouldn’t they hate us? Wouldn’t you hate anyone who cooped you up in a ghetto?”
“Of course I would. That’s why I say one ought to give them more freedom.”
“Oh, yeah? First let them sign a peace treaty my boy – then we’ll talk about freedom, all right? Who do they take us for?
“Didn’t I tell you? Peace or nothing!”
“Now, look here – what sort of talk is this? How coud we prove our goodwill to the Arabs except by a fair treatment of our minorities?”
“Here, I agree with you entirely. It’s definitely time we eased their lot somewhat?
“Ease the lot of the fifth column?”
“I was kidding.”
“I beg your pardon! They want to throw us into the sea!”
“You’re telliing me? They’re praying for our destruction!”
“You’re talking through your hat again. Tell me – why shouldn’t they pray? We came here univited, settled on their lands – and you expect them to love us? Ridiculous?
“Naturally from their point of view they are right.”
“Now, really! They live here at a higher standard of living than their ‘fortunate brethren in the neighboring countries!”
“And yet they have the nerve to grumble! What else do they expect from us?
“Don’t you really know? They want Palestine back, my boy! Was it an Arab country or wasn’t it?
“Well, you can’t deny…”
“Like hell! A mighty Jewish empire extended over this area before the Arabs were even born! An Arab country, he says!”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t the truth; I only said that they…”
“Who cares about ‘truth’, old boy? Didn’t they teach you at school that force, only force, can change the course of history?”
“That’s it.”
“But, that’s fascism, if you don’t mind! blatantly militaristic outlook!”
“i reject it.”
“‘Reject it’? What delicacy! Where are you living, sir? For your information: our enemies are holding us in a mortal stranglehold. You are against militarism? would you rather commit suicide?
“On the contrary, I’m for a large army.”
“That’s not enough, old boy!” In that respect they’ll always top us. Our strength lies in moral superiority!”
“Exactly! And that we have, haven’t we?”
“Now, wait a minute!l What queer morals are these: aren’t you ignoring the fundamental right to freedom of the minorities?”
“I don’t know – I’m a little mixed up…”
“My dear sir! I would like to be able to look world public opinion straight in the face!”
“So, you are against military government?”
“I am against it with every fibre of my being!”
“So ought we to abolish it?”
“How could we?
—-
from “So Sorry We Won” by Ephraim Kishon, with cartoons by Dosh (Kariel Dosh) translated from the Hebrew by Yohanan Goldman. Maariv Library, Tel Aviv. First printing November 1967, Second Printing December 1967, Third Printing March 1968.
on the other hand, Bank Leumi did freeze UNRWA’s accounts. So, schizophrenic. Reminds me of another Ephraim Kishon story from the same book.
“…MK Tzvi Succot visited Levi at his farm on Sunday, and noted that the police investigated the incident: “There is no evidence to the allegations, there is no indictment, criminal record or a record with the Shin Bet. All it is is that leftists don’t like that Jews are building a farm.”
Regarding the executive order, the MK stated: “It somehow reached the American administration, Biden signed an order to freeze his assets in the US, but the crazy part is that Bank Leumi called him and froze his bank account.”
Succot criticized the bank: “It makes no sense for an Israeli bank to freeze the bank account of someone, who is the salt of the earth, because of a leftist libel that reached the Americans. This is illegal, no one has the authority to just freeze someone’s bank account, and if the issue is not fixed, I will demand to hold an urgent discussion in the Knesset.”
“Israeli bank freezes accounts of farmer targeted by US sanction”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/384677
HONEY,
They likely committed a HUGE threat to Peace by taking back what terrorists had stolen from them.
I’ve never heard of the massive bureaucracy grinding to work to sanction 4 individual citizens. I wonder does Shabak know that YESHA is harbouring 4Jewish monsters posing as decent hardworking people.
Edgar What did the settlers do, nothing. But Biden needed villains and religious Jews have always been a target
@Laura While I’m on the topic (see below on Sinai)
“Inside Donald Trump’s History of Donations in Israel
From a now-defunct playground to irrigation tech for cosmetics: here are the pet projects Trump won’t see on his Israel visit
Two playgrounds, a huge park and a reservoir used for irrigating desert jojoba plants.
When Trump Helped Resettle Evacuated Israelis?How Trump Can Get the Most Out of His Israel Visit?Trump Donated $10,000 to West Bank Settlement
U.S. President Donald Trump may have to skip these attractions on his one-day visit to Israel on May 22, but money he contributed over the years to the Jewish National Fund helped finance their construction.
According to sources in the Jewish National Fund, an organization that raises money abroad to finance large projects in Israel, Trump was part of a consortium of donors involved in each of these projects. The sources had no information available on the size of his individual contributions.
One playground he helped finance was in the northern town of Yokneam in the Galilee. Another was in Sufa, a kibbutz in southern Israel, near the border of Gaza, which was founded in 1982 by Israelis who had evacuated the Sinai as part of the peace agreement with Egypt signed three years earlier.
It was not possible to determine whether the playground in Yokneam is still intact, but the one in Sufa was torn down quite a few years ago, according to a longtime resident of the kibbutz, because it was deemed unsafe.U.S President-elect Donald Trump stands next to Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, after a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, December 28, 2016.Credit: DON EMMERT/AFP
Trump was also part of a group of New York donors who financed the development of American Independence Park, a huge wooded area outside the central Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. The park was created to mark the bicentennial anniversary of the United States in 1976. Aside from picnic areas, scenic overlooks and trails, the park is also home to a memorial to the victims of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster.
More recently, in 2003, Trump was part of a group of New York-based donors who financed the construction of a reservoir in the western Negev to catch winter rainfall that had previously been wasted. The driving force behind that and dozens of other reservoirs built by the Jewish National Fund around that time was the Jewish-American billionaire Ron Lauder who in recent months has been serving as an unofficial consultant to Trump on Middle Eastern affairs. The water collected in these reservoirs was meant for agricultural use, and in this particular case, providing irrigation for jojoba – a plant from which cosmetics are derived and which thrives in arid climates.
That same year, in 2003, Trump donated $10,000 to institutions located in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. The donation appears in the income tax filings of the Donald J. Trump Foundation for that year and was among the largest his foundation made that year.
In March 1983, Trump, then a relatively young real estate mogul, was the recipient of the prestigious Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award, which honors individuals and families for their dedication to promoting U.S.-Israel ties and outstanding community work.
As Haaretz reported last week, Trump contributed at that time to the resettlement in the Negev of Israelis forced to evacuate the Sinai under the terms of the Egyptian peace agreement. A plaque bearing his name, among dozens of other donors, is featured on a commemoration wall in Dekel, one of the communities established with that funding.Asked for comment, a spokesman for JNF said: “JNF respects the privacy of its donors and does not make public their names or contributions without their permission.’” – Haaretz (of all places) May 19, 2017
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2017-05-09/ty-article/.premium/inside-donald-trumps-history-of-donations-in-israel/0000017f-f810-d044-adff-fbf93d450000?lts=1707034344780<s=1707034353752
@Michael The “aid” was, in fact, agreed upon compensation – without a cost of living increase – to Israel for withdrawing from Sinai, which gave the U.S. hegemony over the Soviet Union in the region. Israel lost out tremendously in strategic depth, oil, tourism, and evicted Jewish towns and residents. It also marked the beginning of the U.S. hobbling the Israeli economy and military in a state of dependency. Even the much lauded emergency military aid during the Yom Kippur War that Nixon ok’d would not have been necessary if the Nixon/Kissinger administration had not pressured Israel not to attack pre-emptively and withheld vital intelligence of the impending attack.
Moreover, Israel gives more than she gets from the U.S. in a variety of ways, including intelligence, Research, Development and testing of weapons, and other inventions. What is needed is an equal partnership on a quid pro quo basis as the occasion arises not this neo-colonial vassal relationship in which the U.S. – which has, from the beginning strove to maintain an even-handed policy between Israel and the Jewish people and her/our mortal enemies – continually sabotages Israel’s interests. And Israeli companies need to start licensing the inventions they have been selling abroad not relinquishing all rights to them. When push comes to shove, these could be vital leverage.
For many of the the things Israel does for the U.S. see Admiral Yoram Ettinger’s blog and Youtube videos.
I might add, the U.S., as well, needs to free herself from dependency on China and stop the CCP and Jihadist intervention and sabotage of every aspect of American society.
{Enter President Trump, stage right.}
I read “4 Settlers”. “A serious threat to Peace”…what do they do, march up and down with a few placards… Ambush US servicemen in Guatamala??
Recover from the terrorist PA their stolen herds??
THAT’S a SERIOUS disturbance to Peace…..
Zzoo,…. vat vill heppen mit de szancshins…?
Not allowed to travel to the good ol’ USA…
Nebbuch…!
.
MICHAEL
You’ve never been “accused” of having any sense of humour, and if you do, somehow, I don’t know where you keep it. Perhaps you sit on it…??
Because your foolish-not to say- silly response means exactly nothing.
It merely shows that you acknowledge my post as fact, want to refute, but can’t find a suitable response in your obviously fading brain.
@Sebastien
That is pretty good, but I like this title better:
Eugene Kontorovich
Better headline:
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/biden-signs-executive-order-against-jewish-settlers-who-wont-sit-down-and-be-murdered/2024/02/02/
Edgar,
I’ve never seen a $3.80 bill. Can you get them at the racetrack?
So four “settlers” get out of line. That’s Israel’s business. Biden should keep his nose, and fingers, out of it.
MICHAEL-
Stop the “double-talking” and misleading comments.
You damned well know that The amount Israel gets from the US $3.8 bill is not a gift. Most of it MUST be spent in the US and it literally keeps over 200,000 workers going. This was deled into a few years ago, not for the first time either.
And Israel is a massive asset to the US but for a presence in the region, and most of all the super-intelligence it gets FREE from Israel. The US has admitted this several times also.
And the Israeli brain that make needed and innovative alterations to US military items that have run into snags.
Plus the fat that all new military materiel sold to Israel gets used in warfare and the US can see how it works in actual REAL TIME.
So shut up with the smarmy remarks.
@Michael S.
This idea that cutting off Israel now is an America First position, needs some nuance and background. The US government has always prevented Israel from solving its own problems by forcing Israel to sign silly one sided ceremonial agreements with savages who are not bound by treaties. It saved the problem for the future.
So now, some American patriots think cutting Israel off is the right thing to do for America. But it’s bad karma to refuse to take responsibility for preventing Israel from defeating its enemies so many times in the recent past.
The very definition of passive aggressive.
Shmujew, you said
Great! You will save the US taxpayers a whole heap of money, if you solve your own problems.
Biden’s policies regarding Hamas v. Israel are based entirely on false narratives and fake news.
Netanyahu should understand that with such policies the Biden administration is out of step with reality. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu should act methodically and gradually so that “the day after Hamas’ elimination” comes after the November elections in the U.S. when Biden is hopefully defeated by Trump and no longer has any ability to pressure Israel.
I do not know how to adequately express my anger.
This means that the USA is playing judge, jury and executioner. Any tale is good enough to charge, convict and punish a “settler”. What about any tales about Palestinians? How come they are ignored or dismissed as fake news? After watching the Regavim report, I thing @shmujew’s view is 100% correct and I would expand it to the EU too.
Time to go it alone and damm the usa