Sanctions are inevitable, despite Israelis’ obliviousness
A demonstration in France in 2025 calling for the boycott of Israel
Uri Bar-Joseph writes in Haaretz on 28 April 2026:
The metaphor of two trains racing toward each other on the same track, headed for an inevitable collision, is a familiar one, and none is more apt for describing the current state of Israel.
At the engine of one train sits the government, which, together with the Israel Defense Forces, the police, the Shin Bet security service and the so-called hilltop youth, pursues a policy of dispossession and annexation in the West Bank, mainly in Area C but also in Area B.
This includes the takeover of hundreds of thousands of dunams of land, the establishment of hundreds of outposts and the expansion of settlements through land seizure and massive investment in infrastructure for Jews only. This is accompanied by the economic strangulation of Palestinians through checkpoints, barriers, the freezing of Palestinian Authority funds and restrictions on employment in Israel.
The passengers in the train carriages – the citizens of Israel – are largely unaware of what’s happening. Some are repelled by the actions of the perpetrators; others see them as heroes. Most are preoccupied with just getting by after nearly three years of war.
The driving force of the other train is the growing sense of revulsion among its passengers – a broad public in Europe and the United States – who are no longer willing to accept a situation in which Israel breaks international norms, carries out mass killings of civilians, violates its commitments and fuels a war whose economic costs they keenly feel.
The American driver at the helm is known as a world champion of zigzagging, and also for his ability to make fateful strategic decisions with a single tweet. His European counterparts are more responsible and cautious, but they too feel the public pressure and believe that Israel has gone too far.
Israel has enjoyed substantial international credit for many years. Its military superiority in the region rests to a large extent on sustained U.S. military aid, which, adjusted for inflation, has so far totaled roughly $300 billion. No country in the world has received assistance on this scale since 1945. This aid has been provided, among other reasons, due to strong bipartisan support in the United States.
That support is crashing. Public opinion polls in the U.S. show sympathy for Israel in steady decline, now falling somewhere between support for China and Turkey.
Forty out of 47 Democratic senators backed a recent Senate proposal to ban the sale of bulldozers to Israel, and that was before they watched Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv, who boasted about destroying homes in Gaza, light a torch in honor of Israel on Independence Day. More senators than ever before have voted in favor of proposals to restrict the sale of certain types of weaponry to Israel. The U.S. remains committed to a two-state solution, and President Donald Trump has also made his opposition to annexation of the West Bank clear.
The finger that the Israeli government is sticking in the eye of the U.S. public through its annexation measures and the injustices it encourages won’t go unanswered. The response will leave Israel militarily weakened and diplomatically isolated.
EU countries, foremost among them Germany, have long felt an obligation toward Israel due to their difficult history and the memory of the Holocaust. Israel knew how to translate this sense of guilt into concrete assets that strengthened its security, economy and international standing.
But with this aspect, too, support is eroding. This is particularly evident in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Germany; the situation is especially troubling given that in Europe, the generation that grew up with the notion of supporting Israel is steadily diminishing. Younger Europeans are repelled by Israel’s policy of occupation and by its discrimination against Arabs.
This erosion has not yet been significantly reflected in policy. A poetic illustration of this was offered by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who warned in October 2025 that Germany would withdraw from the Eurovision song contest if Israel wouldn’t be allowed to participate.
It’s reasonable to assume that public revulsion will intensify once it becomes clear that the pogroms in the West Bank aren’t merely the result of spontaneous hilltop youth activity, but rather an organized government policy aimed at eliminating the possibility of the establishment of a Palestinian state. That revulsion will also be translated into concrete measures, especially now that one of the main obstacles, Hungary under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has recently been removed.
It will probably begin with an expansion of personal sanctions, like the ones that have already been imposed on far-right figures such as Baruch Marzel, Bentzi Gopstein and Moshe Sharvit, and will initially target settlers.
However, in light of the government’s unjust policies, these sanctions will broaden, and eventually every Israeli citizen will feel their impact. The basic demand won’t just be for Israel to cease creating facts on the ground, but for it to restore the situation to its previous state.
One can only hope this happens while Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is still in power, so that it will have to deal with the pressure. However, if the pressure is applied to a new government formed after the election, one not based on ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel will face a serious problem.
It’s impossible to know how army commanders, such as Jordan Valley Brigade commander Col. Gilad Shriki, whose military vehicle bears the emblem of Greater Israel and a Star of David, will respond to an order to dismantle a settler outpost in the area under their command.
The constitutional crisis Israel is currently experiencing would pale in comparison to the crisis that could arise then.
Uri Bar-Joseph is an Israeli political scientist and professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Haifa.
This article is reproduced in its entirety