When Britain moved to impose concrete economic restrictions on West Bank settlements in September 2026, Israel's government answered not merely as a matter of foreign policy, but as an act of domestic political survival. Prime Minister Netanyahu, facing a competitive re-election campaign and dependent on right-wing coalition partners for whom settlement policy is sacred ground, chose confrontation over accommodation. The episode illuminates an enduring tension in democratic governance: the imperatives of international diplomacy and the imperatives of staying in power do not always point in the