US revisiting idea of sanctioning Ben Gvir, Smotrich over West Bank policy – officials
Biden rejected move in past, but White House again considering option, believing that far-right ministers are behind lack of enforcement on settler violence, settlement expansion
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

The White House revisited the idea of sanctioning far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir during a meeting this week regarding the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, according to two United States officials.
The idea of designating one or both of the ministers has been raised several times since US President Joe Biden signed an executive order in February, allowing the levying of sanctions to clamp down on those destabilizing the West Bank, the officials said.
Biden himself rejected the idea at that time, arguing that the US should not be sanctioning the elected officials in Democratic countries, one of the US officials said, confirming reporting in the Axios news site. One of Ben Gvir’s allies Benzi Gopstein has been designated, though, for his role as head of the extremist Lehava organization.
The possibility of sanctioning the far-right ministers has resurfaced, as Israeli settlers have continued attacks on Palestinians with overwhelming impunity and as Israeli authorities have continued taking steps to expand their footprint in the West Bank.
As national security minister, Ben Gvir has directed police he oversees to take a lax approach to cracking down on settler violence, one of the US officials said.
As finance minister and minister in charge of settlement affairs in the Defense Ministry, Smotrich advanced a quid pro quo arrangement last month that saw Israel advance plans for roughly 5,000 settlement homes, legalize five wildcat outposts and expropriate large amounts of land in the West Bank.

In exchange, Smotrich agreed to release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues that he had been withholding from the Palestinian Authority, which brought it to the brink of financial collapse.
In the days and weeks before the finance minister agreed to release the funds, sanctioning him was again seriously considered by the Biden administration, a US official told The Times of Israel at the time.
The release of those funds along with the announcement Friday from the European Union that it will provide $435 million in emergency aid to the PA over the next two months, significantly help stabilize Ramallah’s financial situation.
But Biden officials are still looking to respond to the latest steps taken in the West Bank and discussed a range of possibilities during a National Security Council meeting this week, the two US officials said.
After the idea of sanctioning the far-right ministers was raised, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew offered a different approach: meeting with Smotrich. Influencing the finance minister through engagement has also been considered by some in the administration over the past year, but that idea has also been dismissed amid concerns that doing so could legitimize his views.
Another idea proposed was reversing Trump administration policy that allowed goods made in the settlements being exported to the US to be labeled “Made in Israel,” the US officials said.
No final decisions were made in the meeting and the most-far-reaching idea of sanctioning Smotrich and Ben Gvir would have to be made by Biden, Axios reported, adding that the situation in the West Bank will be a key topic of discussion during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Biden in the White House on Monday.
Responding to the report, Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to notify the Biden administration during his visit to Washington this week that Israel will collapse the PA if the US pulls the trigger on designating the national security minister or the finance minister, or even if it continues to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens.