The High Holy Days, observed by Jews worldwide, are a time of solemn resolution, remembrance and repentance. This New Year is particularly fraught for Israel and its closest ally, the U.S.
Yet there’s welcome news from Israel regarding the crisis in the West Bank, where fanatic settlers commit what the Times of Israel describes as “near-daily, sometimes deadly attacks” on the Arab population of the occupied West Bank.
As the quotation reflects, Israelis themselves are speaking out against it, increasingly in emphatic terms that some of Israel’s advocates in the U.S. might wrongly call antisemitic.
“What is Jewish supremacy?” one said recently. “Eighty years after the Holocaust, ‘Mein Kampf’ in reverse. The master race is us.”
That analogy to Nazi conduct before and during World War II came from Moshe Ya’alon, a former army chief of staff who was a defense minister under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In quoting him, the New York Times said he is “long considered a security hawk.”
The audience is America
His warning was meant for American eyes and ears at least as much — if not more so — than for the government in Jerusalem that until now has encouraged the hoodlums by tolerating their violence.
Several hundred retired generals and colonels were among 550 Israelis, including former diplomats and intelligence officials, who signed an appeal to President Trump before his July meeting with Netanyahu. The U.S. media largely ignored the West Bank aspect, focusing instead on the war with Iran and the elusiveness of a Gaza peace deal.
Many Israelis regard the West Bank situation as a greater stain on their country than the massive bombing in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023 that took some 1,200 lives and hundreds of hostages in Israel.
“Unless arrested swiftly and decisively, escalating violence in the West Bank is poised to ignite the region and carries severe ramifications for both Israeli security and U.S. regional interests,” said the letter to Trump.
U.S. pressure has impact
Both he and Netanyahu appear to have finally taken note. Days ago, Reuters reported from unidentified sources that the Israeli premier has ordered the dismantling of some illegal settler outposts in the West Bank.
It was described as a reaction to U.S. pressure.
And Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel who previously had said nothing constructive about the situation, held a town hall with mostly Palestinian-American residents of the West Bank. He referred to the attackers as “terrorists” and said he was “deeply grieved” by their experiences, according to the New York Times.
Netanyahu’s gesture could turn out to be meaningless. The settlers, many driven by what they consider biblical authority, are able to rebuild their outposts almost as quickly as the government can destroy them. In a TV interview, according to the Times of Israel, a senior military official said that “just in the last year, outposts were demolished only to be quickly rebuilt 160 different times.”
‘The real threat’
The outposts serve as staging points for attacks on Palestinian farmers and residents. When the military responds, it is often to protect the settlers, rather than their victims.
“What the settlers are doing here is the real threat to Israel,” said Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven, who has fought for Israel since 1972. “This is more concerning to me than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon,” he said, in remarks quoted by the New York Times.
“This is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply,” said Ephraim Sneh, a retired brigadier general and former minister of health.
The Times described an inspection trip to the West Bank organized by Yaakov Or, a retired general who has spent much of his career there.
“You can stay silent, and be complicit,” he told a group in June, “or you can speak out, and tell everyone you know about what is happening.”
Those words should go right to the hearts of Israel’s friends in the U.S. We do Israel no good by continuing uncritical support with military aid, weapons sales and diplomacy — even when Israel acts in ways as shocking to American consciences as to many in Israel.
Israel will hold a national election Oct. 26, the first since the Hamas attacks of 2023 that should have brought down the Netanyahu government long ago over the appalling security failure that caught the nation asleep. As we have said previously, Israel needs a new government, one not controlled by extremist factions in its present coalition.
Americans will vote a week later in an election in which our Israeli alliance has become an issue as never before.
As the New York Times Mideast expert Thomas Friedman wrote this week, these will be “two of the most important dates in the history of two of the most important democracies.”
Shalom, and shana tova.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.