He signed an executive order on Thursday, saying violence had reached “intolerable levels”.
The sanctions will block the individuals from accessing all US property and other assets.
Violence in the West Bank has spiked since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel.
Skepticism is always healthy, but try not to wade too far into cynicism.
International relations are very complicated, and even if it would be satisfying to have fast and heavy responses, I can also understand the cautious approach in this case. As you say, it’s an election year. It would not do Palestinians much good to have a reactionary response poison the well, just to the Republicans win all levels of government and screw up the region far worse, in addition to abandoning Ukraine.
Millions of them have been displaced. They’re starving and dying every day. Disease is rampant. Tens of thousands are dead. They’re running out of hospitals to use. Genocide isn’t the kind of thing you can do a “wait and see” approach for. I get what you’re saying, but people need to keep pressuring him. I hope no one takes this small victory as an excuse to stop.
Yeah, the benefit of the slow and steady approach is for Americans, not for Palestinians.
We have to remember, those people aren’t our friends. They’re known to chant “Death to America”. They include the kind of terrorists who would commit the October 7th attacks, and most Palestinians support that kind of terrorism.
We want to stop the genocide while keeping Israel as an ally against both terrorism and Iran, who is currently attacking any Western shipping through the Suez Canal.
I think we have a lot more room to do that, absolutely. It’s a bad situation, and we have to understand our role in it. But our role can certainly be less hard-lined than supporting genocide.
Why do you think that is?
Does it matter? Should we not care about being attacked because they have a reason?