Secretary Rubio is Right to Condemn Sanctioning of Israeli Officials

NEW YORK – A leading pro-Israel organization has praised the statement by Secretary Marco Rubio following the announcement by the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom of sanctions specifically targeting two Israeli cabinet members. Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI) calls the sanctions “wrong and immoral.”

Secretary Rubio said on June 10 that the U.S. “condemns the sanctions” and “urges the reversal of the sanctions.”

“Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) have engaged in incitement against everyday Israelis for decades in textbooks, state-sponsored media, and through other means,” said Moshe Phillips, Chairman of AFSI. “The accusations against these elected Israeli leaders represent the worst kind of both-sidesing.”

What is also alarming, Phillips noted, is that the foreign ministers have chosen to condemn Jewish families for living in historically Jewish areas and are attempting to dictate to Israelis what they need to do to safeguard their nation’s future. These foreign ministers wrote that they “are steadfastly committed to the two-state solution.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: “The idea of the two-state solution is something which, on record, I supported in the past, many times. But I had a wake-up call following October 7.”

“Polls in Israel show that over two-thirds of Israelis support extending Israeli sovereignty over these territories,” added Phillips. “It is immoral for these officials to unilaterally declare where Jews can and cannot build homes for their families in Judea. Both Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have received death threats from Palestinian Arab terrorist groups this year. That the foreign ministers have now sanctioned these Israelis is immoral and wrong. We applaud Secretary Rubio for stating, “We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is” on the very same day the sanctions were announced.”

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Established in 1970, Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI) is one of the oldest and most influential pro-Israel organizations in the United States. Its advocacy and education campaigns serve as a potent counterweight to the rising tide of Arab propaganda. AFSI is not affiliated with any political party in the United States or Israel.