US Holds Back as UK Sanctions Israeli Settlements — SkimNews
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- UK unveiled sanctions against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, accusing Israel of turning a blind eye to "ethnic cleansing" and the destruction of the two-state solution
- Israel retaliated by declaring it would shutter Britain's diplomatic mission to the Palestinians, eject UK military staff from a coordination base near Gaza, and ban nearly a dozen left-wing British MPs from entering Israel
- Eleven mostly European countries signaled by Tuesday afternoon they would join the settlement trade ban, extending the diplomatic isolation
- Mike Huckabee previewed potential US "sanctions, repercussions or retaliations" against Britain on the BBC before the UK announcement, but admitted he hadn't spoken to Trump and didn't know specifics
- Marco Rubio offered only a tepid response: "We're not going to do what the UK did... I don't have any comment on it right now," noting the UK had given the administration advance notice
- Trump said Wednesday he would speak to Israel to "find out why all of a sudden has that happened," declining to side with either Britain or Netanyahu
- Netanyahu's public rejection of Trump's Gaza peace plan and his escalations against Hezbollah that complicated US-Iran Strait of Hormuz diplomacy have fueled administration frustrations, making a fight with Europe over settlements "not worth the squeeze"
Why it matters: Trump is choosing to absorb criticism from pro-Israel Republicans and his base rather than defend Netanyahu, because his foreign policy priorities — preventing escalation in the Strait of Hormuz during his stalemated war with Iran and advancing a Gaza deal — depend on Gulf Arab mediators who themselves condemn West Bank settler violence. The 11 European countries joining the UK ban marks a widening Western crack in the diplomatic shield Israel has long relied on.
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