After 12 days of war with Iran, nearly 21 months of fighting in Gaza, and ongoing daily battles against terrorism in the West Bank, the last thing the country needs is for IDF soldiers in Judea and Samaria to have to contend with Jewish extremists.
While the complete picture of what transpired on Friday night and Shabbat in the Binyamin region is still unclear, what is known is deeply troubling: Jewish extremists clashed with IDF soldiers, allegedly physically assaulting them, vandalizing military vehicles, and throwing rocks at army jeeps.
Six extremists were arrested, and a 14-year-old was wounded by what appears to have been live fire.
There are contradictory accounts of the events, but what seems clear is that the IDF, seeking to prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s clashes—when settlers who were trying to reach an illegal outpost got into a confrontation with Palestinians at Kafr Malik near Ramallah, triggering IDF intervention and a firefight that left three Palestinians dead—declared the area a closed military zone.
The violence reportedly erupted when extremists tried to access the site on Friday and were blocked by the military. Despite it being Shabbat, the extremists called on others in nearby areas to come and join them, effectively summoning reinforcements and leading to a broader clash with the IDF.
It remains unclear whether the shooting that wounded the 14-year-old occurred there or at a separate site where masked youths hurled rocks at an army vehicle.
IDF soldiers, reservists shouldn't have to defend themselves from Jewish attackers
Whatever the timeline and precise facts, one thing is indisputable: given the multiple security threats Israel faces, IDF soldiers and reservists should not have to defend themselves from Jewish attackers or spend time, energy, and resources chasing after Israelis intent on committing violence against Palestinians.
Beyond being morally reprehensible—which it unquestionably is—this violence is also a strategic disaster.
First, it forces the IDF to divert manpower and resources away from dismantling terrorist infrastructure in the territories.
Second, it looks terrible and casts Israel in a horrible light. In the West, it gives support to the narrative that violent settlers regularly attack Palestinians with impunity. These incidents are seized upon to justify sanctions against Israel, even though the perpetrators represent a fringe minority.
These incidents are also used to create a false moral equivalence when there is a terrorist attack against Jews, with the argument being that this is somehow balanced out or even justified by settler violence.
There is no comparison between the number of violent incidents Palestinians perpetrate against Jews in Judea and Samaria, and those committed by Jews against Palestinians.
Yet these extremist attacks—which are amplified by agenda-driven NGOs and receive extensive international coverage—foster the perception that it’s Palestinians, not Jews, who live in constant fear of having their cars pelted with rocks or fired upon when driving on West Bank roads.
According to figures used by the Swords of Iron – Real Time Tracker of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), since October 7, 2023, there have been just over 9,000 terror attacks against Jews in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and nearly 2,900 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians.
The Palestinian attack data comes from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center; the settler violence figures come from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, with no definition given in either case of what constitutes terrorism or violence.
While the numbers can be debated – depending on who is doing the reporting and what is being reported – wider trends are harder to deny.
Army Radio reported on Sunday that, according to Defense Ministry figures, Jewish nationalist attacks in the West Bank rose 30% this year – from 318 in the first half of 2024 to 414 during the same period in 2025.
Several reasons are cited for this increase, including what some describe as the “tailwind” extremists feel from the presence of far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the government.
Another explanation is Defense Minister Yisrael Katz’s decision in November to cancel the use of administrative detention orders against Jewish Israelis.
Under administrative detention, widely used against Palestinian terror suspects, individuals can be held without charge for up to six months at a time, with the state able to renew the detentions indefinitely.
Whatever the reason for the uptick in Jewish violence, it is a kind of violence that is blackening Israel’s name and being used to delegitimize the country.
A nation capable of locating and assassinating top Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists in their bedrooms 1,600 km away should, in principle, be able to arrest and stop the perpetrators of Jewish extremist violence in Judea and Samaria – if it were treated as a true priority.
The confrontation between the IDF and the extremists triggered strong reactions across the political spectrum, including harsh condemnations from Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Oddly, those same voices were silent when Wednesday’s violence set off the chain of events that led to the deaths of three Palestinians. That moment, too, deserved a firm public rebuke.
By the same token, Yair Golan, leader of The Democrats Party, was apoplectic over Friday’s events, warning that the real existential threat to Israel “doesn’t come from Iran or Yemen – it comes from within. The Kahanist, nationalist, and fanatic Israel is deliberately working to dismantle Jewish and democratic Israel.”
It would be refreshing to hear Golan express similar outrage following any of the thousands of Palestinian terrorist attacks or planned attacks that, thankfully, don’t end in bloodshed.
The unity sparked by the strike on Iran now risks being undone by renewed internal conflict over issues like this.
According to an INSS poll, 88% of Jewish Israelis supported the attack on Iran – a staggering level of consensus in a society that agrees on so little.
Yet the events of Friday, even with key facts still unclear, risk dragging Israel back into bitter infighting over settlers and settlements. These are the kinds of internal divisions that Israel, still in a state of war, can ill afford to revisit.