Since Britain and its allies announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria on Tuesday, the Trump administration has kept a relatively low profile and refrained from confronting them.
An administration official familiar with Israel policy told Politico that Washington's muted response reflected a deliberate strategy. "We don't need to get into every spat between allies. Israel can defend itself and they will," the official said. Washington is simply "staying out of it," the official added.
The same official also addressed the unusually sharp remarks by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee against the British move, after Huckabee warned that Britain could face "consequences or retaliatory measures" from the US.
According to the official, the ambassador's initial comments did not reflect administration policy. "Huckabee is totally out on his own on this. He does this all the time. He just freelances and doesn't check with anyone," the official said.
The White House and State Department did not respond to Politico's requests for comment.
While US President Donald Trump has shown little hesitation to confront allies when he believes it necessary, he himself issued no statement defending Israel and addressed the sanctions only after reporters asked him about them Wednesday.
Trump said he had only just seen the decision and planned to speak with Israel to understand its thinking. "I understand exactly what's going on, but I want to find out, why all of a sudden has that happened?" Trump said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, known for his strong pro-Israel position, made clear that the US would not impose sanctions of its own on Israel, but stopped short of condemning Britain, France and Canada. Instead, he warned that instability in Judea and Samaria could undermine progress in the Gaza Strip, Trump's 20-point plan and the Board of Peace. "We don't want to see anything destabilizing right now in the West Bank with so much going on in the region," Rubio said. "We think it has implications as well on our ability to make progress with regards to Gaza and the 20-point plan and Board of Peace that we're very committed to."
Curt Mills, executive director of the conservative, anti-interventionist magazine The American Conservative, who speaks regularly with administration officials, said Rubio's response marked a "striking" departure from his traditionally outspoken support for Israel. "It squares a lot of circles for them," Mills said. "If the relationship with the Brits is reasonably good, and it's a way to sort of clip Bibi's wings, I think they're prepared to do it," he added, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his nickname.
Victoria Coates, who served as a senior Middle East official during Trump's first term, assessed that the White House wanted to avoid "another big distraction" ahead of the midterm elections and Trump's expected summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. She said the sanctions were intended primarily "for shock value, not for actual impact," and therefore did not require US engagement.
Coates, who was in Jerusalem when news of the sanctions broke, added that Israeli officials were displeased with the move but were "not panicked over it."
Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro pointed to another political and economic consideration: High energy prices, inflation and trade wars were already weighing on Republicans. "It's a question for the president who's got inflation out of control, high gas prices, people upset about affordability, tariffs on Canada, trade war with Canada, tariffs on other nations," Shapiro said. "Does he want to add additional economic disruption with major trading partners two months before the midterms?"
The officials and analysts interviewed, however, stressed that the administration has no interest in a public rupture with Israel.
Mills said that after going to war with Iran alongside Israel, any attempt to distance Washington from Jerusalem would appear "sort of farcical and unbelievable," particularly to a Republican base in which Israel still enjoys broad support.
The result underscores the balancing act the White House appears intent on maintaining: neither blocking allied governments from acting against Israel nor joining their measures, while at the same time avoiding the appearance that Washington is turning its back on Israel.
