When I was in high school, I studied with a teacher from the West Bank settlement of Shiloh. He was an American guy who had moved to the West Bank out of a discovery of religion and deep feelings of Jewish ownership over the land of the West Bank. One shabbat I joined him at his settlement and stayed at his neighbors house. Waking up in the morning, I asked the family where their son was, as I was staying in his bed for the night. They informed me that he was in jail as a result of being caught walking to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem with explosives in an attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock in order that a third temple could be built. The extremists are everywhere in the West Bank and one does not have to look deeply to find people, both in groups and individuals, that are ready to use extreme violence for religious and political reasons. I know that most settlers would classify themselves as peace loving people who believe in the right of Jews to have control of the West Bank. That is well and good but the bottom line is that there is a group of absolute extremists within the greater settler community that operate with the full knowledge of the settler community. These people would not be able to do what they do without the full knowledge of the great community and ultimately the State of Israel itself. Does anyone think that the Yesha council will come out with a statement saying that a real soul searching needs to take place within the settler community as a result of the arrest of this extremist?

The internal security services of Israel have arrested an American born Israeli settler who is responsible for at least two murders of Palestinians in the West Bank as well as a number of attacks against Jews including the leftist Zeev Sternhall. Avi Issacharoff makes the point that this settler’s mistake was targeting Jews as well as Palestinians because crimes against Palestinians rarely go to trial despite the efforts of Ta’ayush and Yesh Din. There is ample evidence on this website to support Issacharoff’s claim.

Settlers Near the West Bank Outpost of Asahel

What is a surprise in the news today is the amount of security forces that were needed in taking this guy into court as well as his treatment in prison which until now has been reserved for leftists and Palestinians. When he was plucked off a Jerusalem street, he was armed and security forces found arms caches in his house and another location. It is amazing that these types of people, extremist settlers that is, are some of the only people in the country that are allowed to carry weapons around. Perhaps, that would be a sensible place to begin an overhaul of our weapons policy with these people and in general.

As someone who deals with settlers on a regular basis, I hope that the government increases their crackdown on these types of people. Not all of the settlers are as extreme as this one caught today but there is a definite support base, like in most terrorist environments, that allows this activity to continue with implicit support. The coming days should feature a number of settlers and settler groups arguing that this person was somehow crazy and not like them. The sad truth, as far as I can tell based on experience with these people, is that he is not far off from the rest of the “proud settler” community that uses the state and its resources to continue to put us all on their path to insanity and implosion.