As Army Fails to Protect Palestinians, Israeli Leaders Sympathize With Settlers

The Israeli army’s faltering attempts
<https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/world/middleeast/west-bank-siege-israeli-settlers.html>
this
week to rescue two Palestinian families who have been besieged in their
West Bank homes by violent Jewish settlers
<https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/world/middleeast/west-bank-palestinians-israeli-settlers.html>
prompted
a striking statement on Friday morning from Israel’s defense minister,
Israel Katz.

He said he wanted to get the Israeli military out of the business of
protecting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from rampaging settlers
and would try to shift the responsibility to the Israeli police.

As a practical matter, only the Israel Defense Forces have the thousands of
personnel needed to patrol and respond quickly to attacks in the scores of
communities plagued by settler violence this year. Moreover, experts say
that giving responsibility to the Israeli police would essentially put the
fox in charge of the henhouse, because the police are overseen by National
Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist settler himself.

*https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-military-police.html
<https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-military-police.html>*


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#43080): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/43080
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120827837/6024700
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
#4 Do not exceed five posts a day.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/10173629/6024700/1441833971/xyzzy [[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-