Jewish groups and legal experts say President Joe Biden’s executive order on Thursday imposing sanctions on what the White House calls “extremist settler violence” in the West Bank effectively threatens further Hamas They are accused of promoting terrorism.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden issued the executive order while en route to Michigan, a key election battleground state with a large Arab and Muslim population. Leaders of these groups are aware of Biden’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas, which began on October 7 when Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel. He is threatening not to vote for Biden in 2024. (As Breitbart News points out, many leading voices in their communities are themselves “extremists” on this issue.)
The order applies economic sanctions to individuals who commit acts of violence in the West Bank (known to many Israelis as Judea and Samaria), who are already facing prosecution under Israeli law. subject to punishment.
But the executive order goes far beyond that. It could also be used to sanction political leaders or political parties not directly involved in violence. It could also be used to sanction those who verbally defend settlers accused of violence.
language of presidential order They claim, without evidence, that settler violence has reached “high levels”. In fact, Israeli officials say it is decreasing. Statistically, Palestinians are many times more likely to attack Jews than vice versa.
As Israeli legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich puts it, the order “does not call for acts of violence; No matter who is there.” [White House] Anyone who considers it to be detrimental to “peace” and “security” may be subject to punishment. And despite the fact that the Palestinian Authority actively encourages violence against Jews through its “pay-to-kill” policy, which provides stipends to terrorists imprisoned in Israel and pensions for their families. This system applies only to Israeli Jews, not Palestinians. dead terrorist.
The new measures of sanctions against Israelis announced by the Biden administration are not about settler violence. First, there is no need for violence. Anyone who is vaguely involved in, or who appears not to have engaged in, activities that the WH considers to be detrimental to the “peace” and “security” of the World Bank is eligible.
As…
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) February 1, 2024
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) issued a blistering statement saying the Biden executive order casts a false moral equivalency between Hamas and Israeli settlers, the vast majority of whom are peaceful and law-abiding. He pointed out that it was created. RJC stated:
Biden said this executive order would improve morale between Hamas terrorists who have massacred, raped, and kidnapped defenseless civilians and the minority of Israelis whose reported actions are being investigated and prosecuted as necessary by authorities. We must be aware that many people will take this as implying equivalence. .
Let me be clear: We unequivocally oppose criminal violence. There is no moral equivalence because there can be no equivalence between a democracy governed by the rule of law and a brutally corrupt terrorist organization.
The first-of-its-kind executive order sent the wrong message at just the worst possible time, emboldening terrorists and weakening the Jewish state. Joe Biden has once again unnecessarily damaged the US-Israel alliance.
Yaakov Katz, former editor jerusalem post officecalled the executive order a “terrible mistake” that was “intended to create moral equivalence between Hamas and attacks on Jews” and indicated “deep confusion” within the White House.he Added:
Hamas is a terrorist organization that controls Gaza, with tens of thousands of fighters and tens of thousands of rockets. The facility, which massacred more than 1,000 Israelis, is state-run. The other is a small, dispersed group of people who have probably been involved in at most a few violent incidents, most of which are still under investigation.
All of these violent settlers should be arrested and brought to justice by Israel, but by issuing this executive order and imposing sanctions now, the United States is trying to convey how tough it is on both sides. .
Remember, Biden is heading to Michigan today, which has the largest Arab population in the United States. Michigan is a battleground state. This is a story about politics.
But more importantly, there are not two sides here, and this is the mistake Biden is making. He is sending a dangerous message to the world and will sadly encourage terrorism.
Historian Sarah Yael Hirshhorn supported Katz’s analysis, saying, “It’s clear that the Biden administration has little internal understanding of this phenomenon.”
countersign @yaakovkatz!
As a professor who studies settlers and also has zero tolerance for acts of settler terrorism, it is clear that the Biden administration has little internal understanding of this phenomenon. This does not deter attacks or violent rhetoric. Even if it only increases in the short term: https://t.co/uIq9O5xSHI— Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn (@SaraHirschhorn1) February 1, 2024
According to the Times of Israel, Joel Braunld, managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, believes that the executive order is so broad that it will “shift US financial services from the settler movement.” There is a possibility that it could be used to “block the entire system.”
This has been a long-standing goal of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has long sought to target Jewish communities in Judea and Samara. Similarly, the left-wing group J Street, which often takes anti-Israel positions, tried in 2009 to ask the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate Jewish nonprofits that allocate charitable donations to projects in Judea and Samaria. also welcomed the Biden executives. order.
In a press release from J Street Had made This is the very moral equivalence that critics have warned against. “Just as the United States has rightly increased sanctions on terrorists and terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, which have targeted Israelis for decades, we have “We must also take action against those who have committed the crime,” J Street said, calling for sanctions to be “strongly and consistently enforced.”
The controversy stems from anger over the outgoing Obama-Biden administration’s decision in 2016 to allow the UN Security Council to pass a resolution declaring Israel’s presence in Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter illegal under international law. Reminds me of. After his inauguration, President Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall, the holy site of Judaism, affirming Israel’s sovereignty there.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He published his 2021 e-book “The Zionist conspiracy (and how to join it)‘ has been updated and a new preface has been added. He is also the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
