Israel’s relationship with Europe reached an unhappy watershed on Tuesday as British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced an unprecedented set of sanctions targeting West Bank settlements.

He was joined by France and Canada, and a group of other Western countries signed on to a statement that they would support European Union measures against Israel.

The true scope of the sanctions remains to be seen, as do the precise means of implementing them.

Regardless, the decision underscores how ineffective Israel’s government has been in maintaining support among erstwhile Western partners, who are increasingly unhappy with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

Instead of working to isolate obsessively anti-Israel countries in Europe like Spain and Ireland, Jerusalem is making it easy for those critics to pull powerful states to their side.

“We would have wanted the pro-Israel countries to draw other countries toward them,” said Rémi Daniel, research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“In the end, it’s the anti-Israel countries that are setting the tone.”

Domestic politics, and much more

There’s plenty to criticize in the sanctions decision.

Domestic political concerns, which Miliband dressed up as grand, universal — even Jewish — principles, had some impact on the move, especially its timing.

“Labour voters are leaving them for the Greens,” said Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, director of the Israel-Europe Relations Program at Mitvim, “and they recognized some of it was because of the Israeli-Palestinian issue — that the government really hasn’t taken sufficiently tough or hard measures, and hasn’t been progressive enough for what the progressive public believes.”

Announcing sanctions on Israel was a sure way of making headlines and appeasing liberal voters that Labour needs to keep in its camp.

Moreover, Miliband’s presentation in the House of Commons left ample room for criticism. He opened his remarks by claiming the moral authority of “a proud British Jew,” seeking to defuse charges of antisemitism.

But he dismissed concerns from Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis that the sanctions announcement will make Jews at Rosh Hashanah services this weekend........

© The Times of Israel