Why It’s Wrong to Denounce Israel for Those Settler Rampages

Israeli settlers, having endured the latest series of killings in Judea and Samaria – the murders of the Yaniv brothers, of Lucy Dee and her two daughters, of Meri Tamari, and then, of four Israeli civilians at a gas station near the settlement of Eli – by Palestinian terrorists, finally exploded in rage and despair on June 21. Hundreds of them entered the village of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, where they set fire to cars, houses, and fields. A single Palestinian, 27-year-old Omar Abu Qattan, was shot dead in circumstances that are still unclear; the Palestinians claim he was shot by an IDF soldier, but it is more likely that an Israeli settler was responsible; it is less likely, but not impossible, that he was shot by fellow Palestinians as he was standing at one end of the town, and might have been mistaken for a settler. Since that initial rampage, several other smaller intrusions by settlers into other villages in northern Samaria, accompanied by much less violence, have been reported.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of angry scolding coming from the Bidenites, as they insist that the Israeli government must do more to halt settler violence. Ambassador Thomas Nides, the stumble-bumbling mr. buttinsky who will soon be leaving his Jerusalem post for fresh fields and pastures new, announced to the Israelis that the Biden administration “will not stand by and watch settler violence occur. No one should have to worry about a rogue army.”

What is Nides talking about? Does he think the government of Israel has to take lessons from him on how to handle the rampaging settlers?  Israel is a “country governed by laws,” and those who took part in the settler rampages will be found and prosecuted. The IDF explained – it did not justify, but explained, a different thing — that the army had not been prepared for the numbers involved in the initial settler attack in Turmus Ayya, but now has deployed more troops at potential flashpoints in northern Samaria capable of quickly suppressing such rampages.

So far, four settlers have been arrested by Israel, and many more are likely to follow as the Shin Bet studies what videos of the rampaging settlers may exist, and interviews both the affected Palestinians and the settlers themselves. But despite this ongoing investigation, and the warning to the settlers that Israel is “a country governed by laws,” despite the fact that the highest-ranking Israeli general in Judea and Samaria, Major-General Yehuda Fuchs, denounced a previous settler rampage in Huwara last February as a “pogrom” (it was much less than that, but the point is that the IDF has no intention either to whitewash, or to minimize, the settlers’ attacks), in the Western media these settler rampages are being reported in a way to suggest that the IDF is deliberately letting it all happen, and that the Israeli government is somehow complicit. It has not been, is not now, and will not be, a partner in the rampaging settlers’ crimes.

It would be most welcome if the American government were to refrain from taking every occasion to scold Israel as it tries to deal both with this upsurge of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria, and with the inability of Israeli settlers to contain their rage any longer. It is humanly understandable that after so many murders of Israeli civilians, shot down in cold blood, some settlers should have been in a state of rage and despair, and chose to express their anger in the worst possible way, by rampaging through Palestinian villages. The village where they chose to vent their greatest anger was not just any village. It was Turmus Ayya, one of the wealthiest of Palestinian villages, where almost 80% of the homes are owned by Palestinian-Americans. That means there will be great interest in the American media about this particular settler rampage. Congressmen representing districts with large Palestinian-American populations will be bombarded with demands by the extended families of those owning villas in Turmus Ayya that something must be done to stop those “rampaging settlers.” Of course, that is exactly what the IDF and the Shin Bet are trying to do – to stop those rampaging settlers who have so heedlessly done such damage to Israel’s image.

The settler rampages have had several effects, none of them good, on Israel’s situation.

First, the videos of those rampages, and the greatly exaggerated reports about their deadliness – remember, those rampages were all about destroying property, not killing Palestinians, though one man was killed, possibly unintentionally, as he stood on the outskirts of the town, away from the violence – have provided material for propaganda attacks on Israel. The “settler rampages” will now be a fixed phrase, akin to “apartheid state,” invoked by the army of Israel-haters who are happily spreading the theme urbi et orbi. These settlers clearly did not give a thought as to how it looks to people abroad when they march into a Palestinian village, and start setting fire to cars, houses, and fields. Yes, they want revenge on the terrorists and those who support them, but they’ve forgotten the famous saying: revenge is a dish best served cold. Settlers, for god’s sake, don’t touch a hair on the head of Palestinian civilians. Terrorists, of course, are a different matter. Let the IDF, the police, and the Shin Bet do their jobs without having to worry about Israeli Jews running amok.

Second, the Israeli settlers are not harming the Palestinians economically, if that was their intention in setting fire to cars and houses. For the Palestinians will be fully compensated for any property damage by the government of Israel. The houses in Turmus Ayya are quite lavish by Palestinian standards, and repairing the damage done will consequently be unusually expensive to repair. Israeli taxpayers, not the Palestinians, will be the ones paying the bill. Was it worth it, settlers, to set fires to those cars and houses for your psychic release? But at what cost? Did you give a thought to those – your fellow countrymen, and you yourselves — who will be paying for it all, in both money and damaged image, in the end?