Let’s talk about “the settlers.” Everyone else is, or so it feels. There’s a war raging in Gaza; hostilities with Hezbollah in the North; and Iran and its proxies are attacking Israel (and world shipping) everywhere they can; but attention always returns to “settler violence” in “the West Bank.”
Forgive my use of quotation marks, but the terminology is part of the problem. The demonization is an essential weapon in this unconventional war. As soon as you refer to “settlers,” rather than Israelis, an emotional distance is created that has nothing to do with physical distance. Reading some reports, you would think that they were almost subhuman and legitimate targets.
Calling the region “The West Bank,” rather than using terms like Binyamin, Judea, and Samaria, deliberately ignores or belittles Jewish biblical and historic ties to the area.
It should be noted that Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their terrorist partners in crime refer to all Israeli Jews as “settlers.” It doesn’t matter where we live; the terrorists want us to die. The social media posts and recordings made by the terrorists themselves during the October 7 invasion from Gaza referred to “Jews” and “settlers” – not in the West Bank, but in communities like Kfar Aza, Be’eri, Sderot, and Ofakim.
Hamas terrorism
The mass rape, torture, and methods of killing were reminiscent of the sort of barbaric acts favored by ISIS. The attack (and its funding) was the work of the highest level of the Hamas regime in Gaza and received broad support from Palestinians in “the West Bank” and elsewhere.
“Settler violence,” on the other hand, is limited in scope and condemned by leading Israeli figures, including the president, prime minister, and religious leaders. To make it quite clear, I utterly condemn vigilante-style attacks. But they shouldn’t be compared to the Hamas mass assault.
I also condemn attacks on immigrants and other minority groups anywhere in the world, but the UN doesn’t see a reason to hold regular sessions dedicated to the issue. For that matter, the UN appears to be more concerned by the fate of every olive tree that Palestinians claim was damaged by settlers than by the tremendous rise in antisemitic attacks worldwide.
There is a constant parade of world leaders meeting with Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, and a move to put him in charge of Gaza after the war. It is absurd that the same leaders who condemn “settler violence” support Abbas despite his implementation of the “Pay for Slay” policy rewarding terrorists and their families.
Double standards and diplomatic contortions have become the norm regarding the Jewish state. IN ISRAEL, the divisions over the government’s planned judicial reform that dominated the first nine months of 2023 were pushed aside in the wake of the Hamas invasion and war. But the tensions are still there. And while the vast majority of Israelis want to protect the spirit of unity that was created in response to the atrocity, some hope to benefit politically or in other ways by trying to keep the pre-October 7 domestic conflict alive.
The conspiracy theories started immediately. Reports that two IDF battalions had been diverted from the border with Gaza to Judea and Samaria just ahead of the Hamas attack – it later was discovered to be only 100 soldiers, from the strategic reserve – were taken by some as proof that “the setters” were to blame. Instead, it could be seen as an example of the military top echelon and intelligence agencies misreading the map and misinterpreting Hamas’s intentions.
The dangers in Judea and Samaria should not be minimized – but they don’t come from “settlers.” IDF and security forces operating in the area continue to uncover terror tunnels, arms caches, and other evidence of Palestinian intentions that are far from peaceful.
Don’t blame the residents of Judea and Samaria for the Palestinian assault on the South. They have suffered from terrorism, including the slaughter of families in their homes, for decades and have long sounded the alarm. The Western Negev was not attacked because of the residents of Judea and Samaria; it was attacked because of Palestinian terrorist ideology, and an Israeli failure to recognize the seriousness of the threat.
Journalist Kalman Liebskind, in his column last week in Maariv, noted how difficult it is (but shouldn’t be) to get accurate figures regarding the extent of “settler violence,” those incidents that have caused US President Joe Biden, among others, to issue strong condemnations. In cases of friction or violence between Palestinians and Jews, if it cannot be determined who triggered the incident, the default is to blame the “settlers,” Liebskind pointed out.
He also cited an incident that Palestinians claimed was settler violence which turned out to be an IDF raid in which weapons were found in a Palestinian village. These aren’t weapons of self-defense; they are weapons for war – anything from another intifada to a full-blown assault on a Jewish community, Gaza-style.
A briefing to the UN Security Council last month by UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Tor Wennesland, while focusing on the war in Gaza, included a section on the West Bank. It noted that “Over 12-14 and 16-17 December, two large-scale Israeli operations took place in Jenin refugee camp and in Tulkarem, respectively. The operations included exchanges of fire with armed Palestinians, Israeli drone strikes, and search operations. In Tulkarem, there was extensive infrastructure damage from IDF bulldozers. Seventeen Palestinians were killed and dozens were arrested.”
Note that whenever Palestinians are killed during search and arrest operations, they are presumed to be innocent. But if they were not terrorists, just who were these “armed Palestinians” and who armed them, for what purpose? Some half a million Jewish Israelis are living over the Green Line – “settlers.” To forcibly, physically remove them would be impossible (and a clear case of ethnic cleansing), so those politicians and organizations obsessed with the two-state solution rely on cutting them off in other ways, through international delegitimization and demonization. They are all reduced to one evil stereotype.
There’s an irony in denying the right of Jews to live in their ancestral homeland – including places like Shilo, Beit El, and Kiryat Arba-Hebron – while declaring the Palestinians should be able to settle (with foreign funding) wherever they want.
The Jewish residents of “the territories” are not a danger, they are a reminder of why Israel exists. There is no Tel Aviv without Jerusalem. Judea and Samaria are part of the ancient Land of Israel and a modern buffer zone. Failure to protect it will result in a greater number of attacks within the Green Line.
The terrorists don’t differentiate between Israelis from different regions. Terrorists consider them all as legitimate targets. If anything, the way terror attacks on “settlers” seemed to be excused or accepted – internationally as well as locally – served to encourage attacks on Israelis in other places. The series of lethal attacks on Israelis traveling on Route 90 and Route 60 last year should have been considered a warning sign just as much as the rocket fire from Gaza.
There is no excuse for terrorism. Not in Judea and Samaria; not in the Negev; and not in northern Israel. Those who don’t understand this truth turn their own homes into potential targets.
It is heartwarming that bereaved families of fallen soldiers are stressing the need to protect social unity. There is no division between “settlers” and “others” among those risking their lives in the war against terrorism. They are fighting to protect homes and families everywhere.
At midnight on December 31, people all around the world celebrated the start of the new year with fireworks. Hamas celebrated in its own style by launching rockets at southern and central Israel. Welcome to 2024 in the global jihadists’ village.
It is not “settler violence” that threatens to further inflame the region, but the desire of terrorists. Blaming “the settlers” turns a dangerous label into a blood libel – and it endangers us all.