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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

West Bank Settlers Attack the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)

Today was only the latest of many attacks:

A soldier and two Border Police officers were hurt in the West Bank on Wednesday when settlers mistook a military exercise for an attempt to evict them.

Commanders of the Israel Defense Forces' West Bank division had coordinated the drill with leaders in the Yitzhar hilltop settlement near Nablus.

But it appears no one had told the settlement's teenagers, some 30 of whom attack soldiers and border guards with stones.
...
The army condemned the attack and promised to respond firmly to any future breaches of the peace.

Of course, they've been saying that for a while, and we have not seen a serious crackdown. As bad as attacking anyone (i.e. Palestinians/leftists) is, this is qualitatively worse.

Forget "state unity" or "preventing riots" or whatever. These are acts of civil war, and they need to be dealt with by the IDF as such, both in terms of real, serious responses including everything up to, if absolutely necessary, live fire and in setting a narrative that labels these acts as what they are.