TEL AVIV (Dispatches) – U.S. 
ambassador to Israeli occupied territories Mike Huckabee has said Washington will certainly hit back if Britain proceeds with trade sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, telling BBC that a response could come from the federal government and from individual U.S. states.
Huckabee said acting in this way against “a partner, Israel” risked a “huge economic impact on British businesses,” which he warned could find themselves “banned” from operating “in a number of states.”
He told BBC the planned ban on illegal Israeli settlement goods would be “discrimination against the Jewish people,” singling out Florida as a state that could move against British trade.
The ambassador had already accused the British government of “Jew hate” over the weekend, responding to criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is himself Jewish.
Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine issued a parallel threat, saying legislation he pushed through as a state lawmaker “would ban any British company forced to comply from doing business with any state or local government in Florida.”
Firms joining the boycott would also be shut out of the state if they needed permits or tax dealings with authorities to function, he said.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog, in a filmed statement, said Britain would land on “the wrong side of history,” calling the step “a grave miscalculation” and “a gross interference”.
This comes after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham moved to impose a full ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with possible sanctions on Israeli ministers and individual settlers. 
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar has publicly attacked British Foreign Secretary Miliband, calling his statement on the E1 settlement project patronizing.
The illegal E1 settlement bloc would cut the occupied West Bank in half, isolate it from occupied East Al-Quds, and bury any prospect of a Palestinian state, an outcome Israeli officials have stated as the goal.
Miliband announced a ban on imports of goods produced in Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday. He called Israeli settlers “terrorists” for carrying out “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians.
In a joint statement Canada and France announced similar bans on goods from Israeli settlements, with France also pushing for a European Union-wide ban.
They added their names to Ireland, Spain, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, which have already taken steps to restrict trade in settlement goods, or are in the process of doing so.