By Lawrence Solomon, published by Washington Examiner
Britain’s settlement sanctions were never going to stay in London. Days after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced an import ban on goods from Israeli communities in the West Bank and penalties for those who help them expand, 11 other governments said they would follow. Norway is now moving a bill that would make buying or selling those goods a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says the case is stronger precisely because so many others are piling on.
That is why Israel’s first reply was a mistake.
Lawrence Solomon argues that Israel should skip the priced-in slaps and a trade fight with Britain. Instead, he says, recognize Argentina’s claim and quote uti possidetis juris back at London: a new state inherits preexisting administrative lines—the same doctrine Israeli lawyers use for the Mandate west of the Jordan. Britain cannot lecture Jerusalem about “occupation” from islands it took off a Spanish successor state. It would also serve Milei, Trump, and the Americas map—and make the next European capital think twice.
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Lawrence Solomon is a founding columnist at the Financial Post, a columnist at The Epoch Times, and a past columnist for the Globe and Mail. The Deniers, a #1 environmental best seller on global warming, was deemed one of the “10 Books That Drive The Debate” by the US National Chamber of Commerce.