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Last month’s announcement by the British government to ban imports from West Bank settlements, backed by Canada and 11 European nations, marks the sharpest crisis between Western allies and Israel in decades. Amid U.S. inaction over escalating settler violence and continued settlement expansion, the move has triggered a predictable reaction in Jerusalem. Israel has accused Britain’s Labour government of appeasing the party’s hard left and domestic Muslim voters.

The timing of the British sanctions is undoubtedly politically motivated, with the decision coming just in time to pacify Labour’s left flank ahead of the party conference that started on Sept. 27. Beyond Britain, however, the bigger picture is much harder for Israel to challenge. It is highly unlikely that Canada and a broad coalition of European countries are all acting out of identical domestic political motives.

Last month’s announcement by the British government to ban imports from West Bank settlements, backed by Canada and 11 European nations, marks the sharpest crisis between Western allies and Israel in decades. Amid U.S. inaction over escalating settler violence and continued settlement expansion, the move has triggered a predictable reaction in Jerusalem. Israel has accused Britain’s Labour government of appeasing the party’s hard left and domestic Muslim voters.

The timing of the British sanctions is undoubtedly politically motivated, with the decision coming just in time to pacify Labour’s left flank ahead of the party conference that started on Sept. 27. Beyond Britain, however, the bigger picture is much harder for Israel to challenge. It is highly unlikely that Canada and a broad coalition of European countries are all acting out of identical domestic political motives.

Then there is the legislation introduced by U.S. Senate Democrats to sanction Israeli individuals and companies involved in the controversial E1 project, a new settlement that critics argue would cut off the West Bank from East Jerusalem and effectively destroy prospects for a viable two-state solution. As American public opinion increasingly turns against Israel, support for such measures in Washington will only grow. For now, however, it is Europe that is taking the lead.

The fact that Israel has focused its ire on Britain suggests that it views the Labour government as the ringleader of European sanctions. Israel has retaliated by ordering Britain’s representatives out of the international support center for Gaza, demanding the closure of the historic British consulate in East Jerusalem, and curtailing Britain’s role in training Palestinian Authority security forces.

As a historian who has written extensively about Anglo-American policy toward the Middle East, I see striking parallels with a similar crisis in the past. Much like U.S. President Donald Trump today, the Carter administration was mired in an Iran crisis in 1980: the Iran hostage fiasco. President Jimmy Carter had already exhausted much of his political capital in pressuring Israeli Prime........

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