Lame-duck Biden ramps up sanctions on Israelis and eases up on terrorists

As he heads for the exit, President Biden is easing sanctions on Hamas and Hezbollah — while sanctioning Jews in Israel.Under pressure from Israel-bashing critics, including scores of congressional Democrats, a president who stood firmly behind Israel after the Oct.7 massacre seems to have lost his moral compass.And just as President Barack Obama in his last months in office allowed the UN Security Council to pass a resolution slamming Israel, Biden may use sanctions to further turn the screws on the Jewish state in his lame-duck stretch.In 2022, the Treasury Department determined that the Foundation for Global Political Exchange, a US-based non-profit, would violate sanctions laws by inviting Hamas and Hezbollah to a conference it was planning in Beirut.Last week, the Biden administration did an about-face and gave the group a green light for the meeting.Yet at the same time, the Biden administration has created the first sanctions program designed to target citizens of a major US ally.The directive that created the program, Executive Order 14115, theoretically applies to anyone whose actions “threaten the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank” — but there are already plenty of tools for imposing sanctions on Palestinian terrorists.The real purpose of Biden’s order was to punish Israeli Jews.Usually, sanctions target those responsible for severe wrongdoing, such as terrorist financing, nuclear proliferation and large-scale human rights abuses.The new sanctions break this mold by targeting Israeli Jews in the West Bank accused of property crimes and vandalism, or of simply associating with the wrong people.Despite an ongoing campaign of terror by Palestinians in the West Bank, Biden has used his order to target Jews almost exclusively.A single fig-leaf exception was made for a Palestinian terror organization known as the Lions’ Den — which should have been a target of existing US terrorism laws.Worse, the administration has been creating its...