ByGREER FAY CASHMANJUNE 12, 2026 13:06How many other countries will join Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK in the implementation of sanctions against those who, in the view of those countries, finance and encourage extreme Israeli nationalists in their violent actions against Palestinians living in the West Bank?The aforementioned countries have designated Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as persona non grata.According to outgoing French Ambassador Frédéric Journès, these countries took a year to decide to engage in a coordinated effort to castigate Israel for its failure to prevent latter-day zealots from allegedly severely injuring and even killing Palestinians.Journès, in an interview this week on Reshet Bet public radio, said that even though France and the other countries continue to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel, they cannot remain indifferent to Israeli policy and actions that run contrary to democratic principles.“We’re not against Israel, but against the policies of your leaders,” Journès told Eran Cicurel.“Israel was loved in Paris. We’ve lost it, and we need to get it back,” he continued, as he explained how attitudes toward Israel have changed due to the support for hostilities against Palestinians by certain Israeli leaders.(L-R): National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich seen in the Knesset plenum, December 29, 2022 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)Ben-Gvir, Smotrich banned from many European countries On a personal level, Journès said that he loves Israel – the people and the country – despite the heat, adding that he has friends among Israeli officials with whom he disagrees politically and on other issues.One of the things he loves about Israel, he said, is that people can scream at each other at a meeting, after which they get together again as friends as though nothing untoward had happened.Within days of announcing the sanctions, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, together with her Australian and Canadian counterparts, Penny Wong and Anita Anand, respectively, announced the establishment of a peace-building fund for Israel and Palestine to address the roots of the conflict and support a sustainable two-state solution.Meanwhile, the High Court of Justice is contributing to Israel’s negative image. In addition to sanctions taken against Israel in relation to violent attacks on Palestinians in their villages, and wanton destruction of their crops and their property, many European governments are critical of Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid groups to enter Gaza to provide sustenance to Palestinians suffering malnutrition and disease, economic hardship, and bereavement.The court rejected a petition by 19 NGOs and upheld the government’s decision.This violates the core of humanitarian principles, said Shai Grunberg, the spokesperson for one of the petitioners – Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.In the spirit of the best-laid plans of mice and men going awry, veteran social entrepreneur, event hostess, and peace activist Alice Krieger planned a book launch at her home in Tel Aviv.She had sent out invitations well in advance and had informed the two authors of the book that they would have an appreciative audience.Then, just hours before the event was due to start, a national alarm sounded, and people across the country went scurrying into private and public shelters.Krieger began receiving a flurry of phone calls from invitees who apologized for canceling their attendance.A couple of hours later, an all-clear announcement was made, and Krieger received another flood of phone calls from people rescinding their cancellations.Some even asked whether they could bring a friend. In the final analysis, close to 60 people showed up, and nearly all of them bought a signed copy of the book.The authors are an unlikely couple. Maoz Inon is an Israeli whose parents were murdered by Hamas on October 7. Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian whose brother died soon after his release from an Israeli military prison after nearly a year behind bars.Each of the authors was initially in a vengeful mood, but after they met, they realized that no purpose can be served through ongoing belligerence.The only way to get past hatred, incitement, and violence, they agreed, is to aim for peace and to share one’s feelings and ideas with others.They took an eight-day trip by car across Israel and the Palestinian Authority. They talked to people of varying opinions – some of whom had lost loved ones to what they considered to be the enemy force; some who also believed that peace is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The journey gave birth to their book, The Future is Peace.In an interview with the BBC, they said: “We are transforming feelings of revenge into reconciliation. We are transforming despair into hope, trauma into healing. So The Future is Peace is also like a manual, like a guide, not just for a shared journey across the Holy Land, but a guide for human conscience.”In the book, which deals extensively with loss and forgiveness, the authors touch on human emotions that are similar on both sides of the divide.In the US, they had a very successful interview on The Tonight Show.At Krieger’s book launch reception, Inon had a public conversation with longtime peace activist, journalist, photographer, and filmmaker Anat Saragusti, who, early in her career as a photographer for the long-defunct Ha’olam Ha’zeh, in 1982, accompanied editor Uri Avnery to Beirut, where Avnery was the first Israeli journalist to whom PLO chairman Yasser Arafat granted an interview.There were many diplomats present at the book launch, among them Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuinness, Ambassador of the Netherlands Marriet Schuurman, Slovenian Ambassador Bogdan Batic, Norwegian Ambassador Per Egil Selvaag, and diplomats of varying ranks from France, Poland, Singapore, the United States, and the Philippines.Also present was Rabbi Moshe Yehudai, a former chairman of Rabbis for Human Rights. The event, which started at 6:30 p.m., was supposed to finish around 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m., but at 10 p.m., people were still chatting in the garden and inside the house.US Ambassador Mike Huckabee will be in New York in mid-November to address the Tikvah Jewish Leadership Conference and to receive Tikvah’s highest award – the Herzl Prize.The announcement was made by Tikvah Fund chairman Elliott Abrams, Tikvah CEO Eric Cohen, and Tikvah senior vice president Jonathan Silver. Abrams and Silver are also cochairmen of the Jewish Leadership Conference.In their commendation of Huckabee, the trio noted that “his love of Israel is rooted in his Evangelical convictions and deep understanding of how the alliance between our countries is an expression of both nations’ deepest values.”Huckabee was the keynote speaker at the Foreign Ministry's closing session this week of the emergency summit conference organized by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.The main theme of the conference was combating antisemitism within the Church and beyond, and in fostering greater cohesion between Christians and Jews, and creating greater awareness of the Jewish roots of Christianity.Speakers at the summit included Orthodox rabbis. A more detailed report of the summit will appear in next Wednesday’s Grapevine.Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren, who wrote a definitive history about the Six-Day War, will be the guest speaker on June 21 in the popular series on the prime ministers of Israel that is hosted by the Begin Heritage Center, in collaboration with the government.Oren will speak about Levi Eshkol, who served as prime minister from 1963 until his death in 1969. Eshkol, who served as prime minister during the Six-Day War, was also the first Israeli prime minister to be invited to the White House.Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys will be in Israel next week. During his visit, he will address a joint meeting of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations and the European Forum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.His topic will be: “Security in Europe and the Levant: Indivisible, complementary or transactional.”Representatives of the member states of the European Union are expected to attend, and the gathering will take place at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16, in Bronfman Hall on Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus.The Polish Institute in Israel will host a two-day Poland-Israel conference on June 18 and 19 to explore roots and communities and to plan for the future.Participants from both Poland and Israel will include diplomats, heads of municipalities, leaders of associations of Polish Jews and their descendants, community leaders, educators, tour guides, hi-tech experts, and historians.The conference at the Ennis Cultural Center in Tel Aviv will be opened by Polish Ambassador Maciej Hunia, Magdalena Kukula, director of the Polish Institute, and Haim Bibas, chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities and mayor of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut.Archaeologists, geographers, Bible scholars, and historians will gather at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem on Wednesday, June 17, for a three-day international conference on Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria.The first two days of the conference will be taken up with lectures on various sites, including technological innovations and new finds in the Qumram caves, Shiloh, and sites dating to the Byzantine era.On the final day, there will be a tour of the Herodian excavations, at which Eyal Freeman, who will present the opening address at the conference, was one of the archaeologists who oversaw excavations of King Herod’s final construction project.The beauty of this conference is that its speakers are all professionals in archaeology. There is not a single cabinet minister, member of Knesset, or mayor. The conference is dedicated wholly and solely to archaeology.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jerusalem Post or its affiliates.greerfc@gmail.comFollow us on Google