A Palestinian terrorist tried to ram his car into IDF soldiers outside of Kiryat Arba on Wednesday. There were no Israeli casualties, and the terrorist was eliminated.
On Monday, 27-year-old Mevaseret Cohen was wounded when terrorists fired on the car in which she, her husband, and their six-week-old baby were traveling near the Jewish town of Ateret in Samaria. Her baby and husband, a reservist on leave from Gaza, were unharmed. The terrorist, who fired at least six bullets at the car, escaped.
The foreign media will not report on either of those incidents in any significant manner. Nor will they report on the hundreds of monthly attacks on Jews living beyond the Green Line, including rocks thrown regularly at cars, ramming attacks, and drive-by shootings.
Yet, say the words “West Bank violence” to much of the world, and what this conjures up in many people’s minds is “extremist Jewish settlers.”
Why do they do that?
Why is that? Since October 7, world leaders, led by US President Joe Biden, have sprinkled their condemnations of Hamas and their decrying of the overall situation in the Middle East with an obligatory talking point about quelling “Jewish extremist violence” in the West Bank.
Another reason is that the US and UK have imposed sanctions against violent settlers.
And there are headlines like this one on Reuters: “US delays sale of assault rifles to Israel over settler violence.”
By no means should Jewish extremist violence be whitewashed. Nor should it be implied that it does not exist; it does and it needs to be condemned and stopped.
But it is also by far not the main source of violence in the West Bank. If you are a Palestinian driving the roads in Judea and Samaria, you are concerned about being stopped at an IDF checkpoint. You are not, however, worried about being gunned down randomly in a drive-by shooting. That is the unique preserve of Jews plying those roads.
Jews, including “extremist settlers,” are not waking up in the morning thinking about how to go out and murder innocent Palestinian civilians. But the terrorist who shot at Mevaseret Cohen’s car was thinking exactly about how to go out and murder innocent Jews.
Hallel and Yagel Yaniv; Elan Ganeles; Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee; Meir Tamari; Ofer Fayerman; Harel Masood; Elisha Anteman; Shmuel Mordoff; Aviad Nir; Shai Migreker; Batshvea Nagari; and Elhanan Klein are all Jews who have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists on West Bank roads since the beginning of the year. That is also the type of violence that should rile up the world – yet it doesn’t.
And why not? Because they are “settlers” – and, the argument goes, they should not be there in the first place.
The problem with that logic – and we see it now among many who are apologizing for Hamas’s October 7 atrocities – is that in the terrorists’ view, all Israelis are “settlers” who have no right to be anywhere in the country, whether outside the Green Line or anywhere inside it.
Hamas spokesmen and their supporters abroad refer to Nir Oz, Be’eri, Kfar Aza and Sderot – the communities Hamas attacked on October 7 – as settlements. Those ripping down posters of hostages in Manhattan and London have no sympathy for the captives because they are “settlers” and Israeli “colonizers.”
There is no comparison between the level of Palestinian-perpetrated violence in Judea and Samaria and that carried out by Jews there. None whatsoever. Not even close. To suggest otherwise not only betrays the truth but also creates a perverted moral equivalence, as if to say, “Yes, there are bad Palestinians – Hamas terrorists – but there are also bad Jews. Just look at those extremist Jewish settlers.”
While the terrorists occupy an honored place in Palestinian society, and their heinous deeds are applauded – note the recent poll showing that 82% of West Bank Palestinians support Hamas’s October 7 attack – violent Jewish extremists are roundly condemned and marginalized in Israel.
Biden has provided Israel with tremendous support in its war with Hamas, and that should be greatly appreciated. But he is wrong in trying to signal his concern for Palestinians by highlighting Jewish “settler violence” and turning what is a deplorable but fringe phenomenon into something on par with the raging Palestinian terror that continues unabated in Judea and Samaria.