Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Biden administration’s reported decision Saturday to slap sanctions on a unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the past.
The sanctions, first reported by Axios reporter Barak Ravid, would apply to the Netzach Yehudah (“Power of Judea”) unit, which enlists ultra-Orthodox soldiers and has been moved from the West Bank to the Golan Heights.
The sanctions would be the first ever applied to an IDF unit, and come at a critical time in Israel’s war against terror, when it faces attack from Iran and all of its proxies, including the ongoing fight against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Politicians from across the political spectrum — including Netanyahu’s chief political rival, Benny Gantz — slammed the U.S. decision, pointing out that Israel has its own judicial system for dealing with complaints against soldiers.
Netanyahu first posted his gratitude to the U.S. Congress for passing $17 billion in military aid to Israel, then posted — in Hebrew — his outrage at the Biden administration for sanctioning an IDF unit in the middle of the war.
The US Congress just overwhelmingly passed a much appreciated aid bill that demonstrates strong bipartisan support for Israel and defends Western civilization. Thank you friends, thank you America!
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 20, 2024
אסור להטיל סנקציות על צבא ההגנה לישראל!
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אני פועל בשבועות האחרונים נגד הטלת סנקציות על אזרחים ישראלים, כולל בשיחות שלי עם בכירי הממשל האמריקני.בשעה שחיילינו נלחמים במפלצות הטרור, הכוונה להטיל סנקציה על יחידה בצה״ל זה שיא האבסורד ושפל ערכי.
הממשלה בראשותי תפעל בכל האמצעים…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 20, 2024
“At an hour when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF is the height of absurdity and a moral low,” Netanyahu said.
Gantz agreed in his own post on social media:
The ‘Netzah Yehuda’ battalion is an inseparable part of the Israel Defense Forces. It is subject to military law and is responsible for operating in full compliance with International law.
The State of Israel has a strong, independent judicial system that evaluates meticulously…
— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) April 20, 2024
It is unclear what prompted the U.S. to sanction the unit, atop other controversial sanctions against Israeli citizens who have not been accused or convicted of any crime.
In Israel, it is widely presumed that Biden is trying to separate himself from Israel to pacify Muslim- and Arab-American voters in Michigan, for fear of losing his reelection bid.
In addition, the Biden administration faces rebellions from left-wing staffers who are obsessed with their hatred of Israel and are constantly pushing the administration to oppose it. The Jewish Insider recently reported on “listening sessions” within the State Department in which staffers who have nothing to do with Israel or the Middle East are allowed to berate their superiors about U.S. support for Israel, with little or no pushback from senior officials.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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