Data collected by both the police and the IDF show that in the second month of the war there was a drop in the number of "nationalist incidents" by Israelis in Judea and Samaria. According to police figures, this is the second consecutive month in which there has been a decline of about 50 per cent in incidents compared to the same period last year. This represents an average of about 50 incidents per month, compared with double the number in the same months last year.
Clashes in the area of the village of Sawiya between settlers and Palestinians (archive) \\ Arab networks
According to the IDF, in the first month of the war there was actually an increase in such incidents. However, incidents began to decline by about 50 per cent in the second month of iron swords.
The police, which is authorized to collect the data, explain the discrepancy in counting cases in which alert squads in localities were involved in incidents suspected of "settler violence." Members of the alert squads were recruited for reserve service in the IDF and operated within this framework. In the first weeks of the war, they were on high alert, as a lesson learned from the Hamas offensive, and therefore responded aggressively.
Settlers during the riots (archive), photo: AP
Although carried out by the alert squads, the IDF counted these incidents as "settler violence." In addition, the police add that since they are soldiers, the police are prevented from questioning them and clarifying the details of the incidents. This is just the tip of the iceberg of a much sharper dispute between the police and the military on the charged issue that has made international waves.
The Judea and Samaria District Police, which is responsible for dealing with nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria, are boiling over the line led by the IDF in the first weeks of the war, as if there is a spike in events. The anger is directed especially at the head of the Central Command, Yehuda Fuchs, who has placed the issue at the top of the list of priorities, up to the military and political leadership, and down to the brigade commanders in Judea and Samaria.
The perpendicular was not invited
Fuchs says in closed briefings that "99.9% of the half a million residents of Judea and Samaria are normative, law-abiding citizens, many of whom are currently being drafted into the war," and also stresses that the violent are "a handful of outlaws." However, that handful gets a lot of attention from him. For example, at a cabinet meeting held a month and a half ago at the Central Command, he presented Netanyahu and the ministers with the data he had collected on a spike in events.
The person who was not invited by Fuchs to the meeting is the commander of the Judea and Samaria Police District, Commissioner Uzi Levy, even though that is his responsibility. Police sources believe that Levy was excluded from the discussion so that the political echelon would not be exposed to the data collected by the police, according to which there was actually a decrease in incidents rather than an increase. The police also note that two years ago, staff work was carried out to characterize and count suspicious incidents according to a uniform index, and to charge the police with collecting data.
Judea and Samaria Police District Commander Uzi Levy (means), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The police act according to the agreed indicator. The IDF's count, they claim, is unprofessional and inaccurate, and has damaged Israel's image in the world. In conversations with the heads of the settlements in Judea and Samaria, District Commander Levy even claimed to them that General Fuchs falls into the trap of "extreme anarchists who are heating up the sector. They come to the Arabs, light up the area, create friction with the settlements and then blame it. In many cases, they are the ones who cause the events."
The district commander even told the heads of the councils about an incident in which he personally received a phone call from the commanding general, with an angry demand to arrest the Israelis. "Why did you arrest the Palestinians and not the Jews?" angered Gen. Fox. Levy replied angrily that the SWAT forces on the ground acted according to professional judgment and in accordance with the findings and not according to views, and that he backed them.
Maj. Gen. Fuchs, Photo: IDF Spokesperson
"Heat the grounds"
"His opinions are known, but we only look at the facts. We don't care about opinions and color," a senior police official said of Fox. "Every complaint there is, we investigate to the end. There are anarchists who come to heat the area. They do not cooperate with investigations and do not allow progress in them. For example, they do not agree to an autopsy, so it is very difficult to draw a conclusion about what happened in the incident. What is certain is that it is not the role of the military to carry out investigations. Therefore, the statements coming out of the IDF and the general are not based on facts, and we will not cooperate with it anymore."
The official noted that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir backs the police, and now the rest of the political leadership already knows the truth. "It's a shame that there are those who didn't have the token dropped on October 7," the senior police official said. "This settlement is the salt of the earth, it protects Rosh HaAyin and Kfar Saba by its very existence, and its sons are a third of the fallen in the Gaza campaign. So don't tell stories."
From conversations with IDF officials, it seems that in recent days the criticism of the Fox line by the police and the settlements has been internalized. A security source told Israel Hayom that "in light of the joint effort of the defense establishment and settlement leaders over the past two months, there has been a significant decline in the number of nationalist incidents."
It should be noted that any report that reaches the defense establishment can affect the assessment of the security situation, and therefore it is carefully examined." The same security source stresses that "there is no such thing as 'settler violence.' The vast majority of the settlements are law-abiding and take a central part in the war against the Hamas terrorist organization. Those who carry out these actions are an extreme handful."
Heavy political damage
The Central Command also now agrees that many cases that left-wing activists reported as "settler attacks" turned out to be false. One of many plots took place in Halat ad Daba'a in the South Hebron Hills. An organization called the Villages Group posted on Facebook that 50 settlers raided the village, causing enormous damage, beating people and confiscating property. A few hours later, it turned out that this was an IDF operation to locate weapons, which were indeed found in the village, and that it had been done in accordance with the law.
The trouble is that the heavy damage to Israel has already been done. The IDF's approval of the "settler violence" libel has led to the entire American leadership speaking this language. The administration even announced the denial of visas to these "extremist settlers," and even worse, the American discourse created a kind of "moral balance" between Hamas' crimes and "settler violence," because the State of Israel collaborated with the lie. It's a shame that the IDF forgot that, according to Hamas, every Jew is a settler.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us