the Hamas-led October 7 massacre<\/a> still burns, but it must not be used to justify the reign of anti-Palestinian terrorism.<\/p>\nUnnamed \u201csecurity sources\u201d have reportedly told the media that some IDF commanders are reluctant to pursue violent settlers for fear it will damage their careers. That\u2019s understandable when you can\u2019t be sure which side your government is on.<\/p>\n
‘Great international damage to Israel’<\/p>\n
Netanyahu admits Jewish terrorism \u201ccauses great international damage to Israel.\u201d He inexplicably insists the terrorists are just wayward teens and \u201cnot from the settler community.\u201d Not that he believes it, but because that community and the religious and nationalist extremists are more critical to his reelection in October than any international outrage.<\/p>\n
The Netanyahu government\u2019s failure to confront these terrorists is reverberating around the world, with governments and institutions threatening trade, travel, and other sanctions.<\/p>\n
Settler violence and the government\u2019s failure to take it seriously are bolstering Israel\u2019s status as a pariah state and offending even its best friends. Human rights have never been a high priority for the Trump administration, and Huckabee\u2019s condemnation may be a one-off, but severe damage already has been done in Washington, and the outrage is bipartisan.<\/p>\n
The Jerusalem Post\u2019s Herb Keinon called the settler violence \u201cmorally reprehensible\u201d and a \u201cstrategic disaster.\u201d It diverts manpower and resources away from fighting terrorism, casts Israel \u201cin a horrible light,\u201d is used to justify sanctions against Israel, and creates a false moral equivalence when terrorists attack Jews.<\/p>\n
Trump, upon taking office in January 2025, immediately revoked the Biden administration\u2019s sanctions on violent settlers and, until Huckabee\u2019s recent comments, seemed largely unperturbed by their actions. Of course, the president has been preoccupied by his partnership with Netanyahu in their bungled war on Iran, which is winning friends for neither man in Washington.<\/p>\n
When Congress reconvenes this month in a last burst of pre-election pontification and legislative grandstanding, efforts will be made to restrict or even cut aid to an increasingly unpopular Israel and limit the weapons and technology that can be shared.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu, like someone else we know, takes credit for everything and responsibility for nothing. That\u2019s why he must worry about two elections this fall, one week apart. Both will help define the future of the US-Israel alliance.<\/p>\n
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By now, millions around the world have seen the video of four masked men getting out of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[41,37,99,8750,502,12760,545,6905],"class_list":["post-274752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-itamar-ben-gvir","tag-jews","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-terrorism","tag-west-bank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117201186624085105","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}