Britain’s trade ban should be blamed on the Israeli government

I do not support the boycott of Israeli goods from the West Bank, such as the boycott by Britain. At the same time, however, I believe that the Israeli government deserves much of the blame for these boycotts, even if most Israelis and even most settlers are not to blame.

Under the current Israeli government, Israel has pursued an aggressive policy of settling the West Bank for the explicit purpose of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state at any point in the future, regardless of what the Palestinians do or don’t do. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich even proudly claimed a year ago that his government’s settlements policy in the West Bank “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

This policy is destructive for both Israel and the Palestinians because neither will have a peaceful future unless there is a two-state solution. Although a Palestinian state would not be wise at this time, it is frankly insane to believe that there is an alternative to the creation of a Palestinian state when the Palestinians finally choose peace over violence.

In addition to this policy, it seems pretty clear that the Israeli government is not doing enough to reduce the violence perpetrated by some settlers against the Palestinian residents of the West Bank. The IDF appears to take the matter seriously, but that is not enough. According to the Times of Israel, “The Shin Bet is failing to take settler violence seriously, a senior Israeli military official complained to Israeli television on Friday, as attacks across the West Bank continue on a daily basis with almost complete impunity”.

Also, according to the Times of Israel, “IDF’s West Bank chief said to warn PM that settler attacks could spark major Palestinian terror outbreak”. In other words, just like the settlements policy, the weak response to settler violence hurts both Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel is of course free to make all the bad decisions that it wants to make if Israel is the only one suffering the consequences, but when the Palestinians also suffer the consequences, it isn’t surprising that external parties, such as the UK government, try to find ways to pressure Israel.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said that the “British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists,” and that “the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and, worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

I wish that I could disagree with Miliband, but he is simply reflecting back the Israeli government’s own actions and words.

The bottom line is that the Israeli government’s poor policies in the West Bank are failing the Israeli people, and Israel deserves better. I hope that the Israeli people get a better government after the election of October 27.