Many and varied libels have been directed against the settlers over the years, ever since the settlement enterprise was established in Judea and Samaria. They hide the money between Yitzhar and Itamar, extract the bread from the mouths of children in the periphery, burn olive trees for breakfast, concoct plots to harm the Palestinians at noon, and steal land even before the sun sets. Everything was there, in the smear campaign against the settlers responsible for committing the atrocities commanded against them in the Protocols of the Yesha Elders.
There is nothing new in blackening the name of the settlers, but the libel being spread against them now is probably the ugliest, most humiliating and false of all. Already on the Black Saturday of October 7, journalists began building the plot, and it continues to unfold to this day, with the generous help of opinion leaders and former senior officers.
According to the plot, IDF forces were diverted from the area surrounding the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria, leaving the residents of the envelope exposed to Hamas attack. In fact, it is the settlers who are indirectly to blame for the horrors of Simchat Torah. Had they given up their aspiration to settle in the historic Land of Israel, live their lives there and celebrate their holidays there, it is possible that at least some of the residents of Sderot, Ofakim, Be'eri, Kfar Gaza and the other communities that suffered the cruelty of Hamas would have survived.
Much can be written about the wickedness and evil involved in concocting this slander, as well as about the inciting falsehood at the heart of the theory of settler guilt for the massacre. Many settlers did not hesitate for a moment, jumped out of their settlements and entered the void left by the military and intelligence failure, fought and were killed for the communities in the envelope, while the army was still dozing and struggling to cope with the lateral collapse. Many of the settlers are fighting and killed in the Gaza Strip.
Above all this is the trivial fact that not a single soldier has been moved from his routine security activity in the Gaza Strip for Judea and Samaria. At most, a General Staff reserve of 100 fighters was sent to reinforce the burning sector of the Central Command.
Many settlers did not hesitate for a moment, jumped out of their settlements and entered the void left by the military and intelligence failure, fought and were killed for the communities in the envelope, while the army was still dozing and struggling to cope with the lateral collapse
But what's the point of brandishing the heroism of the settlers, their participation in the war effort, and the place of honor reserved for them in the ranks of the fallen defending the state – as long as the assumption hidden between the lines of the blood libel is that the settlers' right to protection is secondary? The decision to focus the IDF's activity on Judea and Samaria is the result of increasing terrorist attacks, the almost weekly murder of family members and civilians. But the disseminators of the plot have no interest in this, because for them the settlers of Judea and Samaria are nothing but battering tools, and protecting them is of secondary importance. In short: settler life does not count.
This is a disgrace to all those involved in spreading the blood libel. This is a disgrace to senior military officials, headed by the IDF chief of staff and the IDF Spokesperson, who do not bother to protest against the defamation of their fighters who live in the settlements and clear their names, and who by their silence and stutter help spread the thesis that it was a military mistake to conceive of reinforcing the security of Israeli civilians slaughtered on roads and communities. The settlers don't need excuses, and they don't owe anyone an apology. It is the duty of the IDF to protect them, and the duty of its leaders to fight the libel against them, as well as the claim that they are second-class civilians who bear responsibility for the massacre.
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