The scope of Biden's order extends far beyond law-breaking settlers - opinion

President Biden’s February 1st “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank” goes far beyond seizing the assets and barring the entry of settlers who have engaged in illegal activities against Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

The order in fact empowers Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Louise Yellen to act against any Israeli who doesn’t march in lockstep with their delusional program to establish a sovereign Palestinian state.

Take a look at this excerpt from the Executive Order:

     Section 1.  All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person, including any foreign branch, of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:

     (a)  any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:

          (i)    to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, any of the following:

               (A)  actions — including directing, enacting, implementing, enforcing, or failing to enforce policies — that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank; ...

          (ii)   to be or have been a leader or official of:

               (A)  an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsections (a) or (b) of this section related to the leader’s or official’s tenure; or

               (B)  an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order as a result of activities relating to the leader’s or official’s tenure;

          (iii)  to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person blocked pursuant to this order; 

          (iv)   to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person blocked pursuant to this order;...

'Jew threaten the peace and security of the West Bank'

In the eyes of the Biden Administration, the very existence of Jewish communities beyond the Green Line "threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank."

And since any Jew living legally beyond the Green Line is, by virtue of living beyond the Green Line, "implementing" Israeli policies which "threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank", their assets can be seized and entry to the United States barred.

Ditto for anyone involved in supplying goods and services for the establishment or continued functioning of Israeli communities beyond the Green Line are at risk.

Come to think of it, visiting a Jewish community beyond the Green Line or providing financial support by purchasing something produced beyond the Green Line is, in effect, participating in the implementation of Israeli policies which, in the eyes of the Biden Administration "threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank".

Does this also apply to buying a falafel by the Western Wall?

And what, pray tell, about Israelis who don’t venture beyond the Green Line either physically or with their pocketbooks?

Can Israelis pay taxes to the Jewish State? After all, aren't their tax shekels providing support for all those Israelis beyond the Green Line whose very existence "threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank"?

Of course, any soldier who serves beyond the Green Line could qualify for punishment.

MKs and Ministers clearly can fall under this Executive Order.

No. Mr. Biden hasn't taken some zealous action against the handful of Israelis who have engaged in illegal activity against Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

Instead, with the stroke of a pen, he has fired a warning shot in a campaign against Israeli independence.

It is ironic that at the very time that Mr. Biden is pressing us to forfeit our future in exchange for "ironclad American security guarantees," he is doing everything in his power to show us his true colors.

Thank you, Mr. President.

The writer spent 30 years in American prisons after being convicted for spying for Israel. Now living in Jerusalem, he is an investor and cofounder in a handful of technology companies. He also writes and speaks about Israel’s need to be militarily self-sufficient.