Unfortunately, our fears about President Obama’s intentions concerning the application of the anti-BDS provisions of the new, massive Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 to Israeli companies operating over the Green Line have come to pass.
As it now appears, notwithstanding that the language of the law explicitly protects “Israel” and “Israeli-controlled territories,” Obama administration enforcement plans will apparently only include Israel within the Green Line. Although this was not a totally unexpected result, it is curious, nonetheless, and very revealing.
Several weeks ago, White house spokesman Josh Earnest said the provision conflating “Israel” and “Israeli-controlled territories” “contravenes longstanding U.S. policy toward Israel and the occupied territories, including with regard to Israeli settlement activity.”
But he said the president would nevertheless sign the entire bill into law, including the over-the-Green Line provisions, because it was the product of a bipartisan compromise and, “As with any bipartisan compromise legislation, there are provisions in this bill we do not support.”
However, at the bill signing, the president said this:
Provisions of the Act address trade with Israel. I have directed my administration to strongly oppose boycotts, divestment campaigns, and sanctions targeting the state of Israel. As long as I am president, we will continue to do so. Certain provisions of this Act, by conflating Israel and “Israeli-controlled territories,” are contrary to longstanding bipartisan United States policy, including with regard to the treatment of settlements. Moreover, consistent with longstanding constitutional practice, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions in the Act that purport to direct the Executive to seek to negotiate and enter into particular international agreements…or to take certain positions in international negotiations with respect to international agreements with foreign countries not qualifying for trade authorities procedures…in a manner that does not interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy.
This is a stunning maneuver. Just imagine – Republicans were specifically induced to support the entire bill with promises that products from over the Green Line would be protected the same way other Israeli companies are. Yet at his first opportunity the president rubbed Republican noses into the ground by disavowing key parts of the Israeli protections.