The British government says it is suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and leveling new sanctions targeting West Bank settlers as it criticizes Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
The U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and hit West Bank settlers with sanctions, less than a day after vowing “concrete actions” if Israel didn’t stop its new military offensive in Gaza.
Israeli diplomacy on this issue has been virtually non-existent. It really cannot be reiterated how badly the Israeli state department has bungled international relations, given that they had an open hand at genocide as recently as a month ago.
It’s genuinely incredible to see how openly evil the Likud/Khanist extremists in charge have acted, and how reflexive and hollow the counter-messaging has become from Netanyahu
Yair Golan, the leader of the opposition Democrats who served as deputy chief of staff for Israel’s military before entering politics, said that after an unjustifiably brutal campaign, much of the damage [to Israel’s reputation] had already been done. “A sane country doesn’t engage in fighting against civilians, doesn’t kill babies as a hobby and doesn’t set the expulsion of a population as a goal,” he said.
Netanyahu attacked Golan’s comments as “contemptible antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel”, but Golan later doubled down on his position in a press conference.
It’s genuinely incredible to see how openly evil the Likud/Khanist extremists in charge have acted, and how reflexive and hollow the counter-messaging has become from Netanyahu