West Bank violence is NOT Netanyahu’s ‘handful of kids’
Netanyahu: ‘Handful of kids’ not from West Bank behind rising settler violence
Netanyahu’s comments with regards to still escalating settler violence in the West Bank is not an opinion or perspective – but an outright lie. I have to wonder what Netanyahu has said to the Israeli media or if this nonsense is what he is slinging to his American audience.
It has been very well and solidly established that the violence in the West Bank has been coming from small illegal settlements, sometimes no more than a few trailers, and by the fundamentalist extremist settlers who have been routinely attacking, destroying and killing Palestinian farmers and families. We have video. And, no, there is no legitimacy in assaulting peaceful Palestinian farming communities because other Palestinians have been at war with and/or engaging in terror attacks in Israel.
These settlers are being actively and specifically egged on and incited (likely armed, too) by Itmar Ben Gvir as the IDF and police more often stand and watch. The IDF generally only then responds when the Palestinians try to fight back against these assaults and against settler terrorism.
The settlers are, in effect, assuming de facto control over larger and larger areas in the West Bank by forcing small Palestinian communities off of their land, land which many have had and farmed for generations, thereby helping to drive Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s intent to push for full annexation.
I think it should also be widely recognized that Phase 2 of the supposed Gaza peace plan is never going to happen. For one, continued West Bank violence will give Hamas what could be an internationally accepted excuse for rejecting disarmament – an action they never intended to take in the first place.
Netanyahu doesn’t want Phase 2 in Gaza and his coalition members would never accept it. Trump and his real estate team doesn’t want it no matter their claims otherwise. And Hamas certainly doesn’t want it inasmuch as ‘Palestinian sovereignty’ is the last thing they’d accept.
That Trump allowed Hamas to reassume armed control over areas of Gaza where the IDF supposedly has left also doesn’t seem a way to pursue disarmament. Remember that it was Trump who unconditionally handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban dooming that sad nation and, especially, its women and girls. He did this since at the time, Trump thought he’d get a short term foreign policy ‘win.’
Even though that ‘win’ didn’t happen, Trump left deadly chaos for Joe Biden who was then given Trump’s blame by a failed and spineless American media. Trump only does that which he perceives as in his own interests at any given moment without accountability or taking responsibility.
Israel is no exception.
Trump is not in the least a ‘friend of Israel.’ He is, instead, a friend of the Jewish Nationalist Right in alignment with American Christian Zionists who also help fund extremist settlements, Haredi factions and Netanyahu. It’s a circle which must be broken.
The only way Netanyahu’s government can even pretend to be following through on Biden’s 20-point plan – now claimed by Trump but originated by the Biden Administration – would be to end the attacks in the West Bank and give a modicum of protection to Palestinians who have not been overtly aggressive or in other cases aggressive at all to Israel.
But this certainly won’t happen. And don’t expect any change because Netanyahu is not going to give up his PM office. He remains in absolute deference to his Jewish Nationalist coalition who, sadly, is primarily leading the process. And Netanyahu’s extremist coalition is in full alignment with Trump’s still ongoing plan for a ‘Gaza Riviera.’
So long as Netanyahu and his coalition remain in place, Israel’s current security and future stability looks dim. Israel also is at great risk of becoming a full blown pariah state. Only Netanyahu and his extremist coalition could have so fully lost global support and sympathy following the horror of October 7.
