Smotrich Advocates for West Bank Settlements amid Biden's Sanctions on Settlers

US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Israeli extremists on Thursday. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Israeli extremists on Thursday. (AFP)
TT

Smotrich Advocates for West Bank Settlements amid Biden's Sanctions on Settlers

US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Israeli extremists on Thursday. (AFP)
US President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on Israeli extremists on Thursday. (AFP)

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed to advocate for settlement activities in the West Bank in response to US President Joe Biden's decision to penalize settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians there.

Following approximately seven months of halted construction, West Bank settlement officials are pushing for a meeting of the Civil Administration's Supreme Planning Council of the Israeli army. The objective is to expedite the approval process for thousands of settlement units across the West Bank.

At the helm of the Israeli Civil Administration, Smotrich, known for his extremist views, serves as the second minister in the Ministry of Defense.

Smotrich affirmed his commitment to advancing Jewish settlement efforts throughout Israel, even if it entails facing US sanctions.

Yedioth Ahronoth Israeli newspaper reported that around 7,000 housing units are currently in progress at various stages, with over 2,000 of them moving towards the final stage of obtaining building permits. These numbers are not yet finalized as the process is still underway.

"Our silence thus far is due to the understanding that the State of Israel is in a highly complex period, with strategic relations with the United States being managed in accordance with the needs of the war, Shlomo Ne'eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said. "While we remain determined and patient, we sense that a breaking point is approaching."

President Biden issued an executive order on Thursday that aims to punish ill-behaved Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The Biden administration also imposed sanctions on four Israeli men it accused of being involved in settler violence in the West Bank, and they are David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi.

The action is the furthest that any administration has taken to address the phenomenon, which has persisted despite repeated US warnings for Israel to address it, including after a series of first-of-their-kind visa restrictions were announced in December. The announcement also comes amid growing heat Biden has been feeling from progressive Democrats over his continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas and his opposition to a permanent ceasefire.

“The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability,” Biden said in the order.

Reacting to the move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “the vast majority of residents of Judea and Samaria are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are fighting right now in active and reserve duty to protect Israel.”

Israeli Finance Minister was defiant in a statement on the Biden order, saying: “The 'settler violence' campaign is an antisemitic lie that enemies of Israel disseminate with the goal of smearing the pioneering settlers and settlement enterprise, and to harm them and thus smear the entire State of Israel.”

“This is an immoral BDS campaign that turns victims into attackers and sanctions the spilling of settler blood. It’s too bad the Biden administration is cooperating with these actions,” he added.

The US has warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. There has been reporting on rising settler violence in recent months following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement Thursday issued in tandem with the notification of the measure that Biden sent to Congress: “This E.O. will allow the United States to issue financial sanctions against those directing or participating in certain actions, including acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destroying or seizing property, or engaging in terrorist activity in the West Bank.”

The sanctions will block designated individuals from access to the US financial system, blocking them from any property in the US and freezing any property they might already own. The sanctions will also include a ban on entry to the US.



Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
TT

Lebanon Elects Army Chief as New President

The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)
The Lebanese Parliament building a day before a session to elect the Lebanese president, in Beirut, Lebanon, 08 January 2025. (EPA)

Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun head of state on Thursday, filling the vacant presidency with a general who enjoys US approval and showing the diminished sway of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group after its devastating war with Israel.
The outcome reflected shifts in the power balance in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, with Hezbollah badly pummelled from last year's war, and its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad toppled in December.
The presidency, reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, has been vacant since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, with deeply divided factions unable to agree on a candidate able to win enough votes in the 128-seat parliament.
Aoun fell short of the 86 votes needed in a first round vote, but crossed the threshold with 99 votes in a second round, according to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, after lawmakers from Hezbollah and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement backed him.
Momentum built behind Aoun on Wednesday as Hezbollah's long preferred candidate, Suleiman Franjieh, withdrew and declared support for the army commander, and as French envoy shuttled around Beirut, urging his election in meetings with politicians, three Lebanese political sources said.
Aoun's election is a first step towards reviving government institutions in a country which has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Aoun left office.
Lebanon, its economy still reeling from a devastating financial collapse in 2019, is in dire need of international support to rebuild from the war, which the World Bank estimates cost the country $8.5 billion.
Lebanon's system of government requires the new president to convene consultations with lawmakers to nominate a Sunni Muslim prime minister to form a new cabinet, a process that can often be protracted as factions barter over ministerial portfolios.
Aoun has a key role in shoring up a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel which was brokered by Washington and Paris in November. The terms require the Lebanese military to deploy into south Lebanon as Israeli troops and Hezbollah withdraw forces.
Aoun, 60, has been commander of the Lebanese army since 2017.