JERUSALEM — Israel has given Britain 30 days to close its East Jerusalem consulate, a decision the Israeli national security minister described as “Israel’s resolute response to British audacity” — a phrase that has since been quietly flagged by at least two foreign ministries as “not how you talk to your allies, but we’ll get to that.”

The trigger is a sanctions package the UK, with France and Canada, announced targeting the West Bank settlements. The response is the closure of a consulate that, as one former Israeli official pointed out to The Independent, is “in fact the British embassy to Palestine,” which means the move is, in the specific, a way of punishing people who are not the ones the sanctions were aimed at. That is not a bug. It is, apparently, the feature.

"Israel's reaction is not against Britain. It's against Palestine."

The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, called the British ban “a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history,” which is, in the diplomatic world, a strong phrase. It is the kind of thing that, in a normal country, is followed by a phone call. In this one, it was followed by a 30-day notice.

The UK’s Labour government, which had been positioning itself as the settlement-ban leader, has, per one outlet, found that the ban “backfired.” The backfire, to be specific, is that the people who run the consulate now have 30 days to pack it up, and the people in Gaza who the consulate was, in part, watching over, have one fewer set of eyes on them. This is the sort of outcome that, in a policy memo, would be described as “a consideration.” In the field, it is described, by the field, differently.

THE ROW, IN ORDER

  • Early September: UK, France, and Canada announce sanctions targeting West Bank settlements.
  • Wednesday: Israel tells Britain it has 30 days to close the East Jerusalem consulate.
  • Wednesday (later): Israel also expels UK reps from a Gaza coordination mission, which is, in the specific, a thing.
  • The same day: The Argentine ambassador calls for Israel to recognize Argentina's sovereignty over the Falklands as a "condition," which no one asked for, but which is, in the specific, in the record.

The 30-day window is, in the diplomatic world, a specific thing. It is long enough to pack a consulate and short enough to make a point. Britain has not yet said whether it will comply, protest, or, as one commentator suggested, “write a very long letter,” which is, historically, what Britain does, and what, historically, does not work, and what, in the specific, is still happening.

At press time, the consulate was open, the 30-day clock was running, and the potted plant on the step, which one photo showed, had not yet been repotted anywhere.