Many Israeli military and political commentators have addressed the issue of Jews being blamed for the recent Arab violence in the Shomron.

Unfortunately, the phenomenon is not limited to Israel’s enemies, but is pervasive among left-wing Jewish Israelis as well—even as the blood of their own brothers is spilled, a fact slammed this week by Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal.

Israeli political commentator Gadi Taub wrote: “Most of the world is being convinced that the problem in Yehuda and Shomron is the Jews—not the Arabs. The fact that Israelis themselves help promote this false narrative is what allows it to persist, because people point to it and say: ‘Even Israeli Jews are saying it about themselves.’

“Who are the main drivers of this narrative?

“Haaretz in English — an antisemitic incitement mouthpiece loaded with lies and antisemitic writers. Of course, reports from other media outlets also have an impact. And most of the Israeli media works for the left anyway.

“Radical-left, anti-Israel libelous organizations funded by foreign sources that sell antisemitic propaganda under the guise of ‘human rights’ (Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, and others).

“Ronen Bergman in The New York Times, who, together with Mark Mazzetti, wrote an article almost the length of a book that ‘proved’ to the American intelligentsia that the situation had spiraled out of control and that ‘evil’ Israel is turning a blind eye instead of enforcing the law. Israelis don’t realize how influential that newspaper is in shaping the media agenda in the United States.

“Left-wing politicians. It’s not just Yair Golan and his gang of lunatics but also includes politicians who present themselves as right-wing when it suits them—Lapid, Bennett, and Eisenkot.”

Prof. Moshe Cohen-Eliya wrote: “When I was on the left, it was obvious that everything was the settlers’ fault. It began with Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who warned that the occupation was creating a ‘Judeo-Nazi mentality’ in Israel. Later, he wrote about the ‘murderers beyond the Green Line who settled in Judea and Samaria’ and called on their opponents to take up arms. From such extreme views grew the attitude among parts of the left that settlers were not merely political rivals, but the source of all of Israel’s evil. And so, on the left, they became convinced that ‘the settlers are to blame for all our troubles.’

“October 7, of course, was also ‘because of the settlers.’ The story that a battalion and a half from the Gaza Division had been diverted to guard Tzvi Sukkot’s sukkah in Huwara spread across the country, until Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Harel, who circulated the claim, lost a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Sukkot.

“That is not to say there are no violent individuals among the settlers. There are, and those bad apples should be dealt with forcefully. But the left took isolated incidents involving a small fringe group and, with the help of foreign funding, built an entire campaign around the ‘settler violence’ slogan.

“That campaign lumps together assaults, confrontations, property damage, intimidation, and incidents that were never criminally proven; attributes the actions of a few individuals to an entire public; obscures who initiated each incident and what the security context was; and turns collections of reports and testimonies into something resembling a collective verdict. A careful examination of the kind that can be found in the work of the serious journalist (and almost the only one in Israel), Kalman Liebskind, shows that the distinction between terrorism, a brawl, retaliation, and property damage has simply been erased. Palestinian terrorism has also been erased. What remains is a simple story that serves a narrative of hatred: that an entire community is inherently violent.

“The latest incident near Havat Gilad is a telling example. Even if the hikers made a mistake by entering the area without coordination, the basic facts are fairly clear: a Palestinian seized a weapon from a member of the local security squad and opened fire, murdering Binyahu Mellet, H’yd, and Maj. Yuval Ezra, H’yd, and wounding other Israelis. Meanwhile, security forces hesitated to open fire as the crowd advanced because of restrictive rules of engagement and because the incident was treated as just another ‘public disturbance.’ Yet before the blood had even dried, the ‘settler violence’ label was once again immediately invoked. So yes—the settlers are always the accused; the Palestinians, even when they seize a weapon and murder a Jew, are merely ‘the context.’ As Claudine Gay, Harvard’s woke president, said during the congressional hearing: ‘It all depends on the context.’

“This campaign is rooted in a deep political and sociological hostility toward the settlers—the people themselves, their way of life, their beliefs, and above all, their refusal to be ashamed of their Zionism.

“Then October 7 arrived and proved that the settlers were right: that the disengagement from Gaza, which they opposed in the most statesmanlike manner (unlike the self-styled elites of Kaplan Street, who received privileged treatment during the judicial reform protests), was a historic mistake that led us to disaster; that the Oslo Accords were a fantasy concocted by Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres and embraced by Yitzchak Rabin; that handing over territory did not bring peace but brought the enemy closer to our homes; and that instead of communities we received tunnels, instead of farmers we received terrorists, and instead of towns we received terrorist bases.

“Because the fundamental principle of Zionism is that settlement is not an obstacle to Zionism—it is Zionism itself.

“Archaeological research identifies a broad wave of small settlements in the central hill country, mainly in Samaria and Judea, during the 12th and 11th centuries BCE. This period corresponds historically to the biblical account of Yehoshua’s conquest of Eretz Yisrael. Scholars disagree about the precise identity of those settlers, but there is no dispute that the mountain ridge was one of the primary birthplaces of the Israelite people. The historic Land of Israel did not begin in Gush Dan. It grew in the hills—in Shechem, Shiloh, Beit El, Chevron, and Jerusalem.

“Anyone who denies that denies both our historical roots and the fundamental security lesson of October 7: where there is no Israeli settlement, the enemy moves in.

“So yes, the settlers are to blame. They are to blame for seeing the truth before everyone else. They are to blame for warning against Oslo, for fighting the disengagement, and for refusing to believe that withdrawal brings peace. Above all, they are guilty of the one unforgivable sin in the eyes of the Israeli left:

“They were simply right.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)