US will not sanction Smotrich, Ben-Gvir – report

Knowing that the incoming administration would reverse the decision played a large part in dropping the idea.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The U.S. will not sanction either Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich or National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir before President Biden leaves office in January, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

The two nationalist-religious ministers have almost been persona non grata for the Biden administration due to the roles they have been accused of playing in Judea and Samaria.

Smotrich has constantly threatened the financial stability of the Palestinian Authority in his ministerial position and, as the minister in charge of settler affairs in the Defense Ministry, allegedly prevented moves against unauthorized outposts.

Ben-Gvir has allegedly directed the Israel Police, who are under his ministry’s purview, to ignore attacks by Jewish residents on Palestinians in the region, which have totaled a few dozen over the course of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order in February allowing severe financial sanctioning of those “enforcing or failing to enforce policies” that “threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank” or who participate in actions involving “threats or acts of violence targeting civilians” and destruction of property.

Mention was specifically made of “high levels of extremist settler violence” that “undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution.”

Palestinian terrorism was not mentioned, although there have been thousands of Palestinian attacks and attempted attacks throughout Judea and Samaria over the past year alone, some lethal.

The only entities and individuals to be sanctioned to date for “undermining” American objectives have been 17 Jewish settlers and 16 organizations that support the settlement enterprise.

Although some administration officials and dozens of Congress members have felt that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are prime candidates for sanctions, a view echoed by top EU and British officials in recent months, the move was never made.

An American official told the Israeli outlet that the president had been against imposing sanctions because, in his opinion, penalizing ministers of a democratic ally would be going too far and, just ahead of the U.S. elections, it was too much of a political hot potato to touch.

Once Donald Trump won, the administration knew that he would reverse the decision very quickly, so it was no longer worthwhile to make the move. Furthermore, Trump could decide to cancel the order completely, which is any president’s prerogative to do, and restore all its victims’ financial rights.