Sanctions Against Violent Settlers

The President signing the sanctions Executive order (Jewish Press)

‘This land is mine…. God gave this land to me.’ So goes the opening line of the song ‘Exodus’. Which was the theme song of the 1962 movie by the same name. Exodus was the name of the ship that brought Jewish refuges - survivors of the Holocaust to what was then Palestine. The British mandate was still in effect and they controlled entry to Palestine. And they refused to let those survivors in.

That line is based on the biblical narrative that says exactly that. More than once. Eretz Yisroel – the land of Israel – belongs to us – the Jewish people If one believes in the bible, this is an undisputed fact.

But, as I have repeatedly said, the idea that we should take all of it over by force at this time would be a catastrophe of major proportion. For both Jews and Palestinians. Israel would lose all of its vital American support. And blood would flow in the streets of Jerusalem unlike anything we’ve seen since the destruction of the 2^nd Beis HaMikdash.

Those on the  right who say we are forbidden to cede any of our land to the point of dying for it do not understand the very basic Halacha that the lives of our people supersede that Halacha. Which is why I once supported the ‘land for peace’ deal in the belief that giving Palestinians their own state would spare lives. 

Obviously I no longer support that. October 7^th disabused me of that notion. I ow realize that the vast majority of the Palestinians support Hamas and their genocidal goals. Goals supported, aided, and abetted by Iran. That said, there is a great distance between giving them a state and forcibly taking away land that Palestinians have been living on for generations. 

Which brings me to the following NPR story: 

President Biden issued an executive order on Thursday targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied territory.

The order named four people and will lay the groundwork for financial sanctions against settlers who carry out violent assaults, which have increased since Hamas launched an attack on Israel three months ago, triggering a full-scale war in Gaza...

While only four people are named, the order marks the first time that the U.S. has targeted Israeli settlers with the threat of frozen assets and bank accounts in an attempt to rein in settler attacks on Palestinians living in the West Bank, which Palestinians see as the central plank of a future Palestinian state…

There have been almost 500 attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank, which is largely under Israeli-military occupation, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, according to the United Nations.

Some Palestinians have been killed in these attacks while settlers have also attacked property and torched cars, the Palestinian authorities and human right groups say.

Three of the four men named in Thursday's executive order have been prosecuted by Israeli authorities, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Thursday. 

The following is in part the Jewish Press reaction to these sanctions: 

In mid-November, Central Command Commander Major General Yehuda Fox, no great lover of the settlement enterprise, with the elected officials of Binyamin Regional Council reassured them that as far as he was concerned, the accusations regarding settler violence were libelous. 

“99% percent of the hilltop youths do no harm to anyone, neither the army nor anyone else. There is no such concept as ‘settler violence.’ 

So there you have it. two entirely different versions of realty depending on whether you are on the political left or the political right

The question is, which of these 2 versions are more accurate? My guess is – as usual –  is that the truth lies somewhere in between these two versions.

It appears that the 4 settlers that are being subjected to these  sanction are ‘guilty as charged’. Unless NPR is lying, 3 of the 4 men named in Thursday's executive order have been prosecuted by Israeli authorities. If that’s the case, then the sanctions are well deserved. And where there are 4 – there are more. 

On the other hand were there 500 attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank as claimed by NPR?

Well.. maybe - maybe not. Depends who you ask. The right will say all such allegations are untrue. To the extent that there is any violence at all, it is in self defense.  I’m sure that’s true in many cases. Perhaps even most. But I am equally sure that there is a lot of settler attacks directed against Palestinians too. As was the case last year in Huwara. That was not self defense. That was retaliation. How many cases are there like that? I don’t know. But so far only 4 settlers have been affected by these sanctions. And my guess is – they deserved it..

Here’s the thing. I truly believe that the vast majority of settlers are normal law abiding citizens that do not go around attacking Palestinians. But clearly there are those whose ideology is motivated by the opening line of the song ‘Exodus’. And they are going to do whatever it takes to make sure that the all land that is restored to its rightful owners - the Jewish people. Very few will resort to direct violence toward that goal.  The consequences to those that do should be far worse that the sanctions issued by the President.

Even those who try to live peacefully in areas near Palestinian villages that have been there for generations have some culpability here. Even if their violence is only in self defense. Their determination to show Palestinians that they own the land of Israel by living in all parts of it serves only to antagonize them further. Placing in them the not so unrealistic fear that they will be soon be expelled from their homes. Living in settlements like that does not benefit anyone except the settler ideologues themselves  

So at the end of the day, I am not all that upset at Biden's sanctions. It's too bad that it had to come to that..