Jesse Kline: The Carney Liberals are interfering in Israel’s election

Jesse Kline: The Carney Liberals are interfering in Israel's election Announcing sanctions on settlements seven weeks before voters head to the polls shows a profound disrespect for Israeli democracy The federal Liberals’ policy of joining allies in punishing Israel, without providing any constructive solutions for bringing peace to the Middle East, continued apace on Tuesday, when Foreign Minister Anita Anand, along with her counterparts from several European countries, issued a joint statement pledging to “bring forward national measures to ban trade” in goods originating from Israeli settlements. The fact that the announcement came a mere seven weeks before Israelis head to the polls — and as their leaders, courts and police show signs that they are beginning to take the issue of settler violence seriously — exposes it for what it is: a feeble attempt at election interference and a profound disrespect for the Jewish state’s liberal-democratic institutions. The statement — issued by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom — justified the new measures by claiming that the situation in the West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project,” and called on the Israeli government to “immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.” There’s no question that settler violence in the West Bank has been a growing problem since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, and that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not taken the problem seriously. Yet that appears to be changing following a brazen attack on the Palestinian village of Qusra on Aug. 29, in which settlers allegedly laid siege to a home with a Palestinian family inside. Later that day, Netanyahu issued a rare condemnation of the “rioters … causing a huge injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hindering the IDF in fulfilling its missions and harming Israel’s standing in the world.” A statement from a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Doron Spielman, acknowledged that there “is still more work to do” to prevent further attacks on Palestinians, while pledging that Israel will do it “with determination and without hesitation.” Israel, he said, “is a nation of laws and we will not tolerate vigilantism of any kind by any one.” Similar sentiments were echoed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who called extremist settlers a “shame on the face of Israel,” and claimed that a “major effort” is underway to “undermine these activities and bring people to justice.” The proof, of course, is in the pudding, and since that time, four settlers, including a soldier, have been arrested, as police continue their investigation. The military is also investigating an incident on Saturday, in which soldiers allegedly threw a Palestinian man out the back of a vehicle. Separately, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a ruling on Sunday over a case brought by residents of three buildings in the besieged Palestinian village of Jalud. The court admonished the IDF, Israel Police and the defence minister, saying that settler violence is “a completely unacceptable phenomenon that stands in contrast to the basic values and moral principles of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and in contrast to the principles of liberty, fairness and justice.” It ordered authorities to provide the residents with safe passage back to their homes within 14 days and issued a conditional order for the IDF and police to prove they follow through on the judgment. Numerous recent news reports have also indicated that Netanyahu has ordered the dismantling of around 100 illegal outposts in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which the Oslo Accords place under varying degrees of Palestinian Authority control. Taken together, these developments show that, while the current Israeli government can be criticized for allowing this problem to fester for so long, it is an issue that Israel’s liberal-democratic institutions are more than capable of handling on their own. Canada and it allies have essentially proposed using an economic tool commonly reserved for despotic human-rights violators on a friendly country with the rule of law and an independent judiciary. What makes Tuesday’s announcement even more galling is that it comes just weeks before Israelis head to the polls, in what is shaping up to be a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership. The Oct. 27 vote has become a contest between the current prime minister and the centrist anti-Netanyahu bloc, led by Yashar Leader Gadi Eisenkot, who has spent weeks criticizing the government for its E1 settlement plan and allowing the West Bank to descend into “anarchy.” A Monday poll had the opposition leading with 57 seats, compared to 52 for the pro-Netanyahu bloc. But Tuesday’s sanctions announcement, along with U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s fiery anti-Israel speech in the British House of Commons, could change the calculus, prompting Israelis to either vote for the leader who has come out against the current government’s policies, or coalesce around a prime minister who has treated the international community’s concerns with flagrant disregard over the past three years. Either way, it’s a risky gambit that’s hard to dismiss as anything other than election interference intended to put pressure on the government, given its timing. Nor is it likely to produce the desired result of changing Israeli policy. Netanyahu’s order to remove illegal outposts was reportedly done at the behest of Washington, which has maintained friendly relations with Jerusalem and has well-established lines of communication with, and sway over, the government. The same cannot be said of the U.K., whose Jerusalem Consulate will reportedly be shuttered in response to Tuesday’s announcement — or of Canada, which hasn’t let any opportunity to criticize Israel go to waste for the past three years. Sanctioning Israeli settlements is little more than a performative move designed to placate a segment of western society that views the world’s only Jewish state, and the only western-style democracy in the Middle East, as the root of all evil. If Canada and its allies hope to bring about a two-state solution, as they say, this is not the way to go about it. 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