The Test for Trump: How Will He Respond to Judea & Samaria Sanctions?

by AFSI Staff | Sept 10, 2026

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after joint press conference announcing the U.S. peace plan for Gaza, Monday, September 29, 2025, in the State Dining Room of the White House. Photo by The White House - Flickr, Public Domain, WikipediaPresident Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after joint press conference announcing the U.S. peace plan for Gaza, Monday, September 29, 2025, in the State Dining Room of the White House. Photo by The White House – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to speak with Israel, Britain, France and Canada to better understand their decision to impose sanctions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

Asked by a reporter whether Washington opposes the sanctions, Trump stopped short of giving a direct answer. “I’ll be speaking to Israel, I’ll be speaking to them, and I’ll find out what’s their thinking. I understand exactly what’s going on but I want to find out why, all of a sudden, has that happened.”

Trump’s remarks came one day after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced plans to prohibit trade in goods produced in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. France and Canada made the announcement jointly with Britain and said they would also “bring forward national measures to ban trade in settlement goods.”

AFSI Insight
AFSI views the sanctions imposed by the UK, France, and Canada on Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria as a dangerous escalation in the campaign to delegitimize Israel’s presence in its historic heartland. President Trump’s decision to consult with Israel and the sanctioning governments is significant, but what matters now is whether the United States will clearly reject these discriminatory measures rather than remain neutral.

AFSI believes economic sanctions targeting Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria set a troubling precedent: they single out Israelis based on where they live and effectively reward international pressure against Israel. Israel should not be expected to accept economic warfare against its citizens, and its allies should stand in solidarity with Israel.

Source:
Trump says he will speak with Israel and allies over Judea and Samaria sanctions, by Elad Benari/Israel National News, September 10, 2026

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September 11, 2026 | 5 Comments »

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  1. At this point in time, the impression displayed by Trump and his party are not especially pro-Israel. OK, they are not anti-Israel but that is not saying much. The multiplying effect of Israel’s IDF and intelligence operations is often mentioned — in passing. The screams we hear most often are those complaining that Israel is receiving major benefits in the form of payments into Israel’s defense budget, usually with the added information that the money is actually spent in the USA. If we go back a few years, we actually find that even Israel’s defense spending is sometimes withheld and the paid for materials are used to leverage Israel’s policies.

    Biden withheld urgently needed material after 10/7.
    Kissinger withheld urgently needed materials in the Yom
    Kippur war because “Israel has not bled enough”.
    There are probably many more less famous similar chess
    game moves.

    It seems that the profit is not really appreciated. What a surprise!

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    • @dreuveni

      (humor)

      “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

      Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” (1841)

  2. The Lawfare Project

    HOMEABOUT
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    French Appeals Court Holds Israeli Settlement Activity Does Not Violate International Law
    May 3, 2013 – NEW YORK – In a major legal decision that the media has studiously ignored, a French Court of Appeals ruled last week that construction of a light rail system in the Israeli-controlled West Bank by a French company does not violate international law. In doing so, the court sided with many of the arguments Israel has long made in defense of the legality of settlements. Indeed, the decision is a major refutation of the common refrain that “everyone agrees” that construction in the West Bank violates international law.

    Lawfare Project Fellow Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, explained the significance of the decision:

    The Court held that only the Government of Israel, and not private parties, can violate the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions. The arguments that Israeli communities in the West Bank violate international law start with Art. 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The provision was also relied on heavily by the Palestinian plaintiffs in in the lawsuit. The Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions only speaks to and applies to action by the Israeli government (“the Occupying power”), and does not regulate private parties activities in the occupied territory.

    This is an extraordinarily important holding in light of the decades old-debate about the meaning of 49(6) in the context of Israeli civilian migration into the West Bank. It is in direct opposition to the political and international law position on settlements. In the standard narrative, any migration of Israeli Jews past the Green Line, or the expansion of their residences and communities once there, is a war crime. Thus, when private citizens decides to buy or build a house across the Green Line, or even expand an existing one, it is a war crime. Moreover, Israeli citizens who migrate to the West Bank are often said to be guilty of war crimes themselves as aiders-and-abettors. The Versailles decision would seem to reject such a position.

    One clear consequence of the French ruling is that newspapers can no longer say with any pretense of honesty that apart from Israel, “everyone agrees” that settlement construction violates international law.

    https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2018/4/3/french-appeals-court-holds-israeli-settlement-activity-does-not-violate-international-law

  4. My query: “trump friedman kushner beit el arutz sheva”

    Google AI Overview response:

    Donald Trump, David Friedman, and Jared Kushner have deep financial and ideological ties to Beit El, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank that operates institutions associated with the right-wing media outlet Arutz Sheva.
    * Donald Trump’s Donation: In 2003, Trump donated $10,000 via the Trump Foundation to the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, made in honor of his longtime friend and lawyer, David Friedman.
    *
    * David Friedman’s Role: Friedman served as the president of the American Friends of Bet El Institutions and has multiple campus buildings and facilities named after his family in the settlement. He also wrote columns for Arutz Sheva before being appointed by Trump as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel in 2016.
    *
    * Jared Kushner’s Family Ties: Jared Kushner’s parents, Charles and Seryl Kushner, served on the founding board of trustees for the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, and the Kushner family foundation donated $10,000 to the settlement’s schools in 2011 and 2013.
    *
    * Beit El and Arutz Sheva: Located near Ramallah, the religious settlement of Beit El houses the yeshiva network that operates Arutz Sheva (Israel National News), establishing a direct ideological and philanthropic pipeline between Trump’s inner circle and the nationalist religious right in the West Bank.

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