WASHINGTON –Israel’s retaliatory measures against Britain for banning imports from the settlements were designed to make London “wince” and have likely succeeded, former senior US official Elliott Abrams said on Wednesday.
Israel’s decision to close the British Consulate in east Jerusalem and exclude Britain from diplomatic and security activity connected to the Palestinians would impair London’s ability to play the global role it seeks, he said in an interview on the sidelines of the MEAD conference.
Asked whether Israel’s response would cause Britain diplomatic pain, Abrams said: “I think they achieved that.”
Among the retaliatory steps Israel announced were ordering the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem within 30 days, removing British personnel from US-led coordination efforts in Gaza, ending British training of Palestinian security forces, and barring several British figures from entering Israel.
Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former US deputy national security adviser in the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump administrations.
Abrams was sharply critical of British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, particularly his accusation that Israel was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Judea and Samaria. Miliband’s speech announcing the new policy would offend many British and Israeli Jews, he said, because in slamming Israeli policy, he “relies on the fact that he’s Jewish.”
Ex-US official says Miliband's statements puts British Jews under pressure
“He’s a Jew, according to the Nuremberg Laws,” Abrams said. “But there is nothing in the way he lives his life that shows any particular involvement or affinity with the Jewish community, and I think that’s going to rankle a lot of Jews.”
Abrams said he didn’t think Miliband cared whether his words would “rankle” the local Jewish community, adding that this is “part of the problem.”
“You have a British Jewish community that’s under a lot of pressure, and not just political pressure,” he said. “I mean, they do not feel themselves to be safe physically. They don’t think their children are safe in their schools. Nothing that Miliband has done will help. It will make them feel less safe. It will make them feel the government is against them.”
Abrams said the sanctions were imposed according to Britain’s domestic political timetable, with little consideration for the anniversary of the October 7 massacre or Israel’s October 27 election.
The domestic political timetable he referred to was the British Labour Party’s annual convention to be held at the end of the month, with this move believed to be meant to placate the hard-left faction inside the party.
The sanctions are expected to be implemented in another six to nine months, leaving open the possibility that their scope could change, particularly if Israel has a different governing coalition next year, Abrams said.
With the deterioration in diplomatic ties between the two countries, the question now was whether it would spill over into military and intelligence cooperation, he said.
While such ties can sometimes be insulated from political disputes, Israel would seek to marginalize Britain from Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy and the postwar Gaza process, Abrams said.
“The British, like the French, think of themselves as a global power,” he said. “Okay, not a superpower, but a country with a global role.”
If Israel tells Britain, “You just lost your role here,” and makes it more difficult for London to exert influence in Ramallah or Gaza, that will matter to the British, he added.
Abrams rejected the suggestion that Israel’s effort to deter other governments had already failed because 10 additional countries joined the British-led initiative. The majority of European states, as well as Latin American and Asian states, did not join the boycott, he said.
Israel's reaction to UK meant to warn other countries against cutting off trade with West Bank
The strong Israeli reaction was meant to warn other countries that there would be a price, Abrams said.
Britain likely was singled out for the harshest Israeli response because it not only imposed the measures, but also actively recruited other countries to join, he said.
“It was the British who not only did it, but then went out and tried to convince others to join them,” he added. “And I think the Israelis particularly resent that.”
Last month, Israel expelled Dutch representatives from the US-led Gaza coordination center in Kiryat Gat because the Netherlands had announced a ban on settlement imports.
Abrams described the group of countries now acting outside the framework of the European Union – where states, including Germany and the Czech Republic, can and often do block actions against Israel that need to be taken unanimously – as an “anti-Israel coalition of the willing.”
Norway offered a cautionary example of what Britain risks, Abrams said. Once considered an effective mediator in conflicts worldwide, Norway lost its influence when it ceased to be neutral on the Israel-Palestinian issue, he said.
“What have you achieved?” Abrams said he has asked Norwegian diplomats. “Nothing for the Palestinians, and you diminished your own influence.”
That, he said, was also his message to London: “What you did will not help one Palestinian, but it will diminish British influence.”