The IDF has become a private security company for messianic settlers
Last Friday morning, a group of Israeli settlers, many of them armed, descended on the Palestinian village of Tel in the West Bank. They encountered a group of Palestinian men, who confronted them, and resulted in a scuffle in which four Palestinians and two Israelis – a settler from a nearby hilltop farm and a soldier from Herzliya – were killed.
Video footage clearly demonstrated that the incident was one of settler violence and harassment against Palestinians. But, still, the official IDF narrative was of Israelis who had gone on an “unauthorized hike” in Area B of the West Bank and who were victims of a “terrorist attack.”
Israeli media and even Democrats chair Yair Golan initially parroted the IDF, sending condolences to the settler’s family and stating that “terror must be struck with a harsh military hand.” Though Golan, and fellow party member Gilad Kariv, quickly corrected course and denounced the coalition’s support for Jewish terror in the West Bank and the IDF’s refusal to mitigate it, their reflexive response demonstrated the denial of a concrete reality: the IDF has become a private security company for messianic settlers.
This is not new. It is by now broadly acknowledged that when violent settlers invade Palestinian towns with the open aim of inciting “friction” to pursue ethnic cleansing, the IDF either stands indifferent or actively joins in. This is not a problem of individual soldiers or units, but ongoing denial of a systemic defect that army leadership does not decisively address.
The story of Gur Kehati – a combat medic killed in Lebanon in November 2024 – is instructive. Kehati was sent to southern Lebanon to escort a settler “archeologist”, and both were killed in a Hezbollah ambush. The IDF’s investigation into the incident concluded that there was no wrongdoing, despite outcry from the Kehatis and hundreds of other soldier parents, who signed a letter saying that there is no military justification for risking the lives of soldiers to protect settlers in the West Bank, Gaza, or elsewhere.
Gur’s parents went one step further. They placed his military gravestone in front of the IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, and sent a letter in which they requested that his name be removed from the National Memorial to Israel’s Fallen at Har Herzl. They denounced the IDF’s neglect of its soldiers: speaking to Haaretz, they said that an IDF that values human life “is already in the grave with Gur.” In a country with mandatory conscription, where all Jewish citizens are inculcated to value and respect the national army, the volume of their protest is unique and exceptional. But it shouldn’t be.
There is no doubt that Israel needs a strong national army. It cannot afford a careless one, which sacrifices lives, resources and its own integrity for the political leadership’s messianic fantasies. Jewish terror in the West Bank should not be treated as a nuisance or minimized as “rioting,” since this terror requires a significant investment of military resources yet actively works to harm Israel’s national security. Aside from costing the lives of soldiers themselves and calling to question the IDF’s central mission and values, Jewish terror also impedes the IDF’s effectiveness in other arenas, as stated by IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir himself.
Even on the eve of October 7, 2023 – despite Israeli military intelligence and warnings of an attack from Egypt – IDF battalions were diverted from the Gaza border to the West Bank to guard settlers during the religious holidays.
Over the four years of Netanyahu’s coalition, the IDF’s soldiers and purported values have been sacrificed at the altar of messianism and political gain, and the army is used as a private company to guard and perpetuate Jewish terror. Changing this needs to be a top priority of any new government.