The Blogs: What’s Missing from the Settler Siege Story

I don’t know about you, but I’m always relieved when Israel does NOT appear on the front pages of my newspapers. Or news feeds. Or newscasts.

Chances are about 100 to one that if Israel is featured, it won’t be in a positive or even neutral light.

Take last week for example. The Wall Street Journal, a relatively objective newspaper, chose to place a photo of a “West Bank standoff” on the front page, with the story itself on page 6 (“Israel puts West Bank village on lockdown over settler siege,” Aug. 14,). The Washington Post made the same editorial decision (Palestinians besieged in West Bank village fear Israelis will seize their homes (Aug. 14, 2026). It must have been a slow news day. The coverage seemed fair enough at first glance describing how settlers surrounding three homes in a Palestinian village prevented the occupants from entering or leaving. It seemed one of the homes was owned by an American.

The point isn’t whether or not these settlers were justified in what they did or the response of the Israeli military. Clearly this was an unsavory situation and Jews shouldn’t be harassing Arabs in the so-called West Bank, which should be referred to as Judea and Samaria. The point I’d make is that this is a relatively minor situation compared to what’s going on in the rest of the world and in Israel.

UPDATE: Since these news stories appeared, the IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced that he is ordering a major bolstering of troops in the West Bank in light of recent tensions in the territory.

No one was killed or injured and the number of people affected were about a dozen. It wasn’t even clear if all those “occupying” the homes were residents. The WSJ reported that there were five Italian “activists” in the homes to show support.

What alerted my skepticism radar was the liberal use of quotes from such left wing organizations like “Peace Now” (I thought they were defunct!), and B’Tselem (identified by the WSJ as a nonprofit, leaving out that they are the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territory.

Honestly, I’m surprised that Greta Thunberg wasn’t there! I did notice that the WP coverage included photos of a handful of women wearing “Palestinian Lives Matter” t-shirts, which also contained something in Arabic (who knows what?). My sniff test suspects that this was possibly a media event orchestrated by some left wing groups, along the same frequency as headline-grabbing but unsuccessful blockade flotillas to Gaza. Perhaps a shift in tactics? Sadly, it seems the settlers played into this. What also tipped me off to wondering if there’s much more to this story is a quote by Qusai Abu Ridi, one of those trapped in the house, “It’s a stage play,” he declared in the WSJ article. If so, perhaps these Palestinians and their Italian guests may have played a supporting role in this performance.

Looking at the news coverage, it remains clear that sympathy is often reserved only for Palestinians and no consideration whatsoever is given to what may be driving this anger among settlers who feel that their lives are endangered by random acts of violence and the uncertainty of their future.

But all this aside, my main point is what was left out of this story:

In October after the horrific October 7 massacre carried out by Gazans killing 1,200 innocent Israelis, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 240 most of whom were civilians including many children and elderly, there were 567 terror attacks conducted by Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria against Jews, compared to “just” 216 in September.
Following the October 2025 prisoner-hostage exchange deal which preceded implementation of the Gaza Ceasefire, the PA welcomed and glorified the Palestinian terrorists. A report by PMW documented that Abbas personally sent two senior PLO officials to Egypt to embrace and honor the released terrorists. (US Embassy, April 29, 2026)
In 2024, there were a total of 237 terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israelis with 1,040 foiled terrorist attacks. In 2025 , the number decreased to “just” 54 terrorist attacks and 1,374 foiled. There are no figures yet for 2026 but it appears that the number of terrorist attacks have diminished to the single digits. However the attacks foiled remain about the same. This would suggest that the only or main reason attacks have diminished significantly is due to better preventive measures by the IDF and police, and not to fewer attempts.
And since this attack by Jewish settlers, here are a few incidents that the mainstream media hasn’t covered: Arabs scattered poisoned dates in grazing territory used by an Israeli homestead in the Binyamin region, causing severe symptoms in the homestead’s flock of sheep. (Israel Live News, August 18) Israeli security forces thwarted a car-bomb attack planned at a Beersheva nightclub, arresting and indicting Abdullah Gargawi, a 20-year-old Negev resident who maintained ISIS contacts and stockpiled illegal weapons. (World Israel News, “Israeli police foil imminent terror attack on Beersheva nightclub,” Aug. 18). The Israeli military was searching for a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an Israeli man along a West Bank highway have expanded to the city of Jericho. (Times of Israel, Aug. 23, 2026)

So put in context, settlers living in Israel might have good reason to be fearful for their safety. Again, this in no way excuses any of their violent behavior against seemingly random Palestinians. But if news outlets want to be fair in their coverage they should be including this information.

More background omitted from these stories is that in exchange for the release of the 240 hostages held in Gaza, Israel was forced to release Palestinians prisoners, most of them terrorists or suspected terror collaborators. A total of about 4,000 Palestinians were exchanged to bring home the Israeli hostages and many of them, if not a majority, returned to their homes in Judea and Samaria, meaning that Jewish and non-Arabs living there had reason to fear for their safety. It also meant that the IDF and police were keeping an eye on the most dangerous of their prior convicts.

And let’s not forget that the PA has a long-standing stipend scheme providing “pay to slay” benefits to Palestinians arrested for terror offenses or the families of those killed while carrying out attacks. rn countries appears, shall we say, “disproportionate” to the actual harm caused by

The result is that settler violence has indeed increased and should be stopped, but the Western media should also consider that Palestinians themselves are not blameless for creating an atmosphere of anger and fear.

And talking about the dozen or so Palestinians forced to leave their homes in the West Bank village of Qusra, why was there little to no mention of the tens of thousands of Israelis in the Gaza envelope forced to leave their homes due to the October 7 attack, and the 700,000 or so Israelis forced to leave their homes in Northern Israel due to the endless barrage of missiles fired by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist organization in Lebanon? I don’t recall outrage among Europeans and Americans about these innocent residents who, unlike the Abu Ridi family, had to suffer, not for a few days, not for a few months, but over a YEAR.

Let me be clear I am NOT excusing what these settlers did (as I imagine I will doubtlessly be accused of doing). I am merely pointing out the hypocrisy of how this situation is being presented in media outlets and how outrage is limited to only one side.