Why Israel Reacted With Fury to U.K. Sanctions on West Bank Settlements

When Britain announced sanctions on Tuesday against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and said settlers there were taking part in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, the Israeli foreign minister accused his British counterpart of having acted for “domestic political reasons.” The intensity of the Israeli response that followed could be chalked up to the exact same thing. The foreign minister, Gideon Saar, lashed out at Ed Miliband, the British foreign secretary, in a news conference, saying his speech announcing the sanctions was based on “outrageous lies.” Mr. Saar ordered the swift closing of the British Consulate in Jerusalem, evicted British officials from an international center coordinating support for Gaza in southern Israel and barred from Israel a dozen British lawmakers and others he deemed anti-Israeli and antisemitic. The robustness of that counterpunch cannot be disentangled from the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is up for re-election in less than seven weeks . In that sense, the British move may have played into the hands of the Israeli leader’s right-wing coalition, some analysts said. Mr. Netanyahu, who was already on the defensive on a number of fronts and has struggled in the polls, has sought to wring political advantage from Israel’s military conflicts with several adversaries. He can now make the case to voters that the British diplomatic pressure is yet another reason to rally behind him. “This is a government that relishes this idea that the world is against us,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat and adviser to two of Mr. Netanyahu’s predecessors. “It’s a state of mind — that we’re the perpetual victim. And they think that they have to be the tough guy and show that we’re defiant and won’t succumb.” Image The Israeli government closed the British Consulate in Jerusalem in reaction to British sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Credit... Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in . Want all of The Times? Subscribe .