Republican AGs from 13 US states threaten retaliation against UK, Netherlands over settlement sanctions

Republican attorneys general from 13 US states are threatening to retaliate against the United Kingdom and Netherlands over their recently announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The top lawyers from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina have signed onto a letter to the British and Dutch ambassadors in Washington that refers to Israel’s settlement policy an “internal” with which countries abroad have no right to intervene.

“Your anti-Israel sanctions may thus disqualify companies from your nations from contracting with our states, or require our states to divest from your companies, which both deprives your citizens of potentially valuable economic opportunities and deprives our states of potentially valuable goods and services,” the letter states, urging the UK and Netherlands to walk back the sanctions regimes, which were announced together with 10 other countries.

It appears unlikely that the attorneys general will be able to make due on their threats, due to the increasing unpopularity of Israel and its settlement policy.

Sanctioning countries abroad would also mean punishing the American businesses that work with them.

While Democrats have been more vocal in their opposition of Israeli settlement policy in particular, US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have pointed to the close US relationship to Israel and mounting opposition to the Jewish state as reasons why the Republicans lost the midterms.