Israeli Settlers' Latest West Bank Attack: What's the Fallout?

Settler Violence: Just Another Day in Occupied Palestine?

So, another mosque torched, more graffiti, more "messages" delivered with Molotov cocktails. Give me a break. The al-Hajj Hamid Mosque in Salfit, up in the northern West Bank, got hit. "Mohammed is a pig," they spray-painted. Real classy. And "Not afraid of Avi Bluth." Real brave when you're hiding behind masks and burning down holy places.

The IDF is "reviewing" the incident. Right. Like they don't know what's going on. Avi Bluth, the IDF commander whose name was invoked in the graffiti, even put out a statement calling the perpetrators "anarchist fringe youth." Anarchist? Fringe? Let's be real, this ain't some isolated incident. This is a pattern.

The Usual Suspects, the Usual Excuses

And it's not just mosques. A dairy factory in Beit Lid went up in flames. Vehicles torched. Tents in a Bedouin community? You guessed it: torched. People beaten, sheep killed. Nabil Dueis, a 15-year-old, says it was "terrifying, especially for the women and children." No kidding. "I was defenseless against 100 of them…" he said. Where's the protection? Oh, right.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is "holding the Israeli government fully and directly responsible." Shocker. The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs called it a "heinous crime." You think? Abdul Rahim Zidan, Mayor of Deir Istiya, says it's meant "to provoke Muslims." Mission accomplished, I'd say.

Monjed Aljuneidi, from the dairy factory, says the arson was "a message to scare us." Well, if burning down someone's livelihood isn't a scare tactic, I don't know what is. What's next?

International Law? More Like International Joke.

Here's the kicker: these settlements, all 700,000 of them in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law. Illegal! But who's enforcing that? Nobody, that's who. It's like having a speed limit of 55 mph and everyone's doing 90, and the cops are just waving them on.

And these attacks? They're not new. They're surging. A UN report says there were at least 264 attacks in October alone. That's the highest number since they started tracking this crap back in 2006. Offcourse, the Palestinian foreign ministry calls it a "systematic and widespread policy aimed at undermining the rights of the Palestinian people.” You don't say?

The Israeli Police arrested four suspects initially, but released three of them by Wednesday evening. Hmmm.

Then again, maybe I'm just being cynical. Maybe these are just a few bad apples. Maybe the Israeli government is doing everything it can to stop this. Maybe pigs will fly.

Just Another Chapter in a Never-Ending Nightmare