From the Liveblog of
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Smotrich slams potential US sanctions on him: ‘Fatal injury to Israeli sovereignty and US-Israel ties’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister slams potential United States sanctions against both him and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as politically motivated, calling such a move a “fatal injury to Israeli sovereignty” and US-Israel relations.
Responding to reports that White House has discussed sanctioning both far-right cabinet members, Smotrich says that he is “no different than Reut Ben Haim or any other settler on whom draconian and undemocratic American sanctions have been imposed.”
Ben Haim is a leader of the US-sanctioned Tzav 9 group, which has led attacks on humanitarian aid convoys en route to Gaza in Israel and the West Bank.
“This is an unfortunate decision that stems from the internal political needs of those who claim to lead the largest democracy in the world and operate with distinctly anti-democratic tools against a brave partner who is the only democracy in the Middle East,” Smotrich declares in a statement.
Boasting of his activities on behalf of the settlement enterprise in the West Bank, Smotrich says he is proud of his efforts “to prevent the establishment of a terrorist state that would endanger the existence of the State of Israel, and I am ready to pay any price for that.”
Dismissing American and European sanctions as “a passing shadow,” he insists that imposing sanctions on a democratically elected minister in the Israeli government “constitutes a fatal injury to Israeli sovereignty and relations between the countries and this will have serious consequences in many areas.”
“I discussed this with the prime minister and things will be clarified in a way that is not ambiguous,” he warns.
Not wanting to legitimize many of his extremist views regarding the Palestinians, the Biden administration has imposed an effective boycott of Smotrich, refusing to meet with him or Ben Gvir.
The Biden administration has been particularly frustrated over Smotrich’s reported efforts to block enforcement against illegal settlement construction and his withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority.
