Watchwords: Thursday, August 13
The siege at Qusra brought Judea and Samaria before the Security Council, where the ask was that the policing pass to somebody other than Israel — with Britain drafting a September package and eight governments promising practical steps.
A few dozen Israeli criminals sealed two Palestinian homes shut on Sunday — with the families inside them. Holding them there for days. Israeli soldiers cleared the hilltop on Thursday and demolished what those men had built. Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador in Jerusalem, called them "Israeli terrorists." He was right. Tzedek isn't this.
"Settler violence" is a loaded term that, as we have argued extensively [and, I think, successfully], is more or less relegated to a few dozen extremist acting criminally. That we are now faced with a terrible attack and a further diminishing Israel's international standing and giving fuel to that fire? Talk about giving up the high ground — which is something I thought they were opposed to.
The Security Council met to argue that Israel cannot police this and somebody else must. Inadvertently, the UN more or less agreed with the logic of formal annexation, without saying it.
Keep this attack in mind. Condemn it (rightly). But don't let it cloud your judgment.
The UN Security Council took up Judea and Samaria on Tuesday after Israeli criminals harassed Palestinians — dragging Israel into another imbroglio. Mike Huckabee called the men besieging two Palestinian homes at Qusra "Israeli terrorists," and called the siege "a horrific act of terror." Qusra is a Palestinian village south of Nablus, the two houses were sealed off from Sunday (with the families still inside them). He also claims the army and the police went in at his request — something government has not confirmed. The operation is not in question. Border Police took the tent down yesterday morning with Central Command chief Avi Bluth present, after word of it got out and dozens of Israelis got there ahead of the force. They came back today and demolished the structures at Qusra and Jalud. The Council's 10207th session put its own [correctly disputed] figures on the UN. What that session is asking for is jurisdiction — dismantle the outposts and run the prosecutions from outside Israel, on the incorrect premise that Israel will do neither. It enforces both already. Israeli soldiers conducted enforcement operations again this week. The criminals on that hilltop can be counted in dozens. Half a million Israelis live in Judea and Samaria, and it is Israelis who are building the case against those dozens.
Below the line: the week's deployable language — what to say when a reporter asks whether Israel is refusing the Gaza plan, how to answer the donor watching Britain draft its September package, the claims you'll field on Qusra and Zionism, and the traps that lose the room. Members read the full brief.
The Jewish State — Mitzpe's eight-session live course on Israeli history from the Mandate to October 7, taught the way the brief reads. Cohort 1: eight Sundays from Oct 11. mitzpe.org/the-jewish-state