Nimrod Novik
With all eyes on Gaza and on the fallout from Israel’s war on five other fronts—Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, as well as Iran itself—few have noted the unprecedented uptick in violence in the West Bank. Even the murder earlier in July of Saif Musallet,
an American citizen, and the attack on CNN’s Jeremy Diamond as he was on his way to visit the family of the slain American—both by violent West Bank settlers—did little to attract attention to what is an increasingly unstable tinderbox, fanned by convergence of troubling factors
Although President Donald Trump’s early January decision to lift sanctions on settlers sent the wrong message, a series of significant developments on the ground have triggered the dramatic increase in West Bank violence: Israeli extremists seizing what they see as an opportunity; their leaders using government platforms to provide support; the IDF looking the other way; and many Palestinian youth becoming radicalized.
Looming over it all is the shadow of two of the most extreme leaders of the annexationist minority in Israel, entrusted, since late 2022, by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with portfolios directly relevant to West Bank policies.
One, Itamar Ben Gvir, a self-proclaimed Jewish Supremacist, controls the national police force. Since entering office, he has enacted a "hands off" policy concerning Jewish settler terrorists, relaxed the prerequisites for owning weapons and, prioritizing West Bank settlers, launched a campaign for Israelis to arm themselves.
The other, Bezalel Smotrich, employs his dual position as minister of finance and as a minister in the ministry of defense in the service of his three publicly declared objectives: rapid expansion of Jewish settlements, increase pressure on Palestinians to emigrate, and financially choking the Palestinian Authority to bring about its collapse.
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