He signed an executive order on Thursday, saying violence had reached “intolerable levels”.
The sanctions will block the individuals from accessing all US property and other assets.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
I suppose better than nothing but ‘better than nothing’ is a low fuckin bar for intervention in ongoing genocide. Unless there’s reprecussions on the state of Israel, who condones and empowers settelers, this seems like sanctioning the Houthis while simultaneously arming Iran.
It’s a start.
It has been political suicide in the past to criticize Isreal. They are also an incredibly important strategic ally in the region, both militarily and commerce.
This move shows that the US is potentially willing to move away from unconditional support, which could be devastating to Isreal.
So, while the actual scope of the sanctions themselves is unimpressive, the meaning behind it is significant.
Sure, you’re not wrong, but I’m really really tired of getting ‘it’s a start’ action on issues like this and the irreversible change of the climate. There’s a very real timer ticking on both these issues if nothing changes and based on history I’m really skeptical were getting anything but another ‘its a start’ on some other small facet of this issue, ad nauseam until it’s not an election year.
Skepticism is always healthy, but try not to wade too far into cynicism.
International relations are very complicated, and even if it would be satisfying to have fast and heavy responses, I can also understand the cautious approach in this case. As you say, it’s an election year. It would not do Palestinians much good to have a reactionary response poison the well, just to the Republicans win all levels of government and screw up the region far worse, in addition to abandoning Ukraine.
Millions of them have been displaced. They’re starving and dying every day. Disease is rampant. Tens of thousands are dead. They’re running out of hospitals to use. Genocide isn’t the kind of thing you can do a “wait and see” approach for. I get what you’re saying, but people need to keep pressuring him. I hope no one takes this small victory as an excuse to stop.
Yep. I agree, the pressure needs to say on. And more importantly, we need to praise this measure. His administration needs the feedback that withholding support and starting sanctions is a popular policy.
What we don’t need is a tantrum that not enough is being done, dissent that can be weaponized by the Right to convince people to waste their vote on not-Biden.
Agreed! It’s like training a dog with pets lol.
Yeah, the benefit of the slow and steady approach is for Americans, not for Palestinians.
We have to remember, those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”. They include the kind of terrorists who would commit the October 7th attacks, and most Palestinians support that kind of terrorism.
We want to stop the genocide while keeping Israel as an ally against both terrorism and Iran, who is currently attacking any Western shipping through the Suez Canal.
I think we have a lot more room to do that, absolutely. It’s a bad situation, and we have to understand our role in it. But our role can certainly be less hard-lined than supporting genocide.
They’re not our friends? It’s the other way around. We’ve been helping Israel kill them and take their land for decades and decades. We’re on Israel’s side of every peace talk, pressuring Palestine to take horrible deals that isolates them and keeps them separated, covering Isreal when the UN tries to censure them for human rights violations and war crimes, selling them the bombs and weapons they use to kill Palestinian children and families, bomb their neighborhoods and hospitals, pretend we give a shit with a token of humanitarian aid that hasn’t helped the bare minimum of calories they get, the majority of their water being poison, the extremely high unemployment rate, the constant buzzing sound of drones overhead that increases their stress and ruins their sleep, or the general oppressive apartheid state they live under and always while at the same time continuing to sell the tools of murder and destruction to Israel.
Of course they’re not our friends after all that. And of course after all that they are gong to do an armed struggle. An attack the scale of October 7th has only happened once, and it’s the result of years of the deaths being way higher on the Palestinian side and there being nothing they can do about it. October 7th is the only time Hamas has barely touched Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has been killing all Palestinians (including civilians, not just Hamas) disproportionately for years and no one has done or said anything on their behalf. Even their peaceful marches lead to them dying or losing limbs and no other change. So what do you expect them to do? Just do the nice thing for us and die quietly? Cozy up to their oppressors? Holding Hamas against Palestine is like holding the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against all Jews because " clearly they practice violence".
I appreciate what you’re saying about genocide bad, this is just all a response to the comment about them not being our friends. They would be huge friends of ours if we helped them get equal rights or integrate into a one state solution, but the US has never been as interested in that as they are helping Israel complete their mission of settler colonialism.
That’s idealistic. You think if we just do the right thing now that they’ll forgive the past 75 years?
Our government’s primary interest is protecting Americans. These politicians know that if they allow a 9/11 style attack, the same people who are calling for peace now will be calling for those politicians heads.
I too wish we could just all get along. It’s understandable that they want revenge. But as long as we’re expecting revenge, we’re going to do our best to make sure it can’t happen. And that’s oppressive and wrong. But I don’t know how palatable just allowing Israel to be wiped off the map in the name of righteousness is either.
There are no good guys here. I wish I could see a path to peace, but I don’t.
There are Americans who yell almost the same thing to other Americans, ie: anti-abortionists, anti-queer, racists, neo-nazis, Proud Boys, the kind of people who supported and engaged in insurrection, etc etc etc. They may use different words but the intent is identical.
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Does it matter? Should we not care about being attacked because they have a reason?
For anyone not reading any further…this is a whole total of FOUR illegal settlers being banned. FOUR.