"There are some people who are slandering the settlers, they are waging a campaign on the backs of these dear people," the prime minister pounded on the table during his conversation last week with the Biden administration's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
Netanyahu's outright rejection of US policy to deny entry visas from "violent settlers" is very important because it shows that there is finally someone willing to shout out the truth.
First, let's make it clear just what makes someone a "settler." According to Hamas, any Jew living in the Land of Israel is a "Zionist settler" whose punishment is death. This is written and stated in all the organization's publications. The implication is that whenever President Joe Biden or any other official says "settler violence," they are playing into the antisemitic propaganda of the murderous organization. That may not be their intention, but that's how their statements sound to Arab ears.
Second, the idea of Jewish settlement has been part and parcel of the Zionist enterprise since its inception, as articulated in the famous eulogy by IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan for Roi Rotberg, the security coordinator of Nahal Oz, who was murdered and whose body was mutilated by Gazans in 1956.
"We are a generation of settlement," Dayan said in words that have entered history. "Without a steel helmet and cannon muzzle we will not be able to plant [a tree] and build a house... The millions of Jews who were annihilated without a country look to us from the ashes of Israeli history and command us to settle and rebuild the land for our nation."
Over the years, the Israeli and international media have vilified the pioneering settlers who established the Zionist enterprise, until the term "settlement" itself has become a slur. The incitement was so intensive that it paved the way for the US' recent brazen move, whereby fundamental rights can be denied to "settlers" without basic due process.
How did we get to such a situation? Since the outbreak of the war, claims have been spread about supposed widespread violence by those "settlers" against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. The entities spreading these claims are non-governmental organizations that are hostile to the State of Israel. They provide "data" about incidents of supposed "settler violence."
The "data" is released globally by the UN agency OCHA, which is the only UN entity of its kind because its mission – funded by the UN – is to undermine Israel. The current US administration has for some reason decided to rely on this agency, even though Biden's senior officials know exactly what and who they are dealing with.
That's how the blood libel was born. But the facts tell a completely different story. Not one of the authorized agencies in Israel – the police, the IDF, the Shin Bet – can confirm the claims about "an increase in settler violence." On the contrary, in at least the first month of the Gaza war, there was a 50% drop in incidents compared to the equivalent period.
There is also no indication of a worsening situation. The police have not investigated more suspects. More detainees have not been brought to trial. The army is not involved in more incidents – despite the fact that the area is flooded with security personnel because of the war.
That is, in reality, there is no evidence for "many cases of settler violence," as the Americans claim. Nevertheless, they intend to punish an unknown number of Israelis for a phenomenon that barely exists, without hearing them out or allowing them to legally defend themselves.
Such behavior is not acceptable between friends, certainly not between democracies. More worrying is the international campaign itself, which is nothing less than a manifestation of antisemitism (and by the way one must also wonder why the false claims are being embraced by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Central Command GOC Yehuda Fox. The two have so far administratively detained six Israeli civilians and handed many more with restraining orders. In effect, through these actions they confirm the blood libel, which is most regrettable).
According to Natan Sharansky's famous definition, antisemitism is identified by the three D's: defamation, demonization, and delegitimization. This is precisely the attitude toward "the settlers" – over half a million people, many of whom have in fact been drafted via emergency call-up notices to fight in Gaza these days.
The defamation is the false claim that there has been an increase in cases of Jews attacking Palestinians. The demonization is the portrayal of "the settlers" as violent. The delegitimization is the sanctions against them without allowing them to make their case legally.
Thus, President Biden, who loves Israel, and the senior officials of his administration – including Antony Blinken, who is a Jew – are essentially letting an antisemitic blood libel persist. Because as noted, in the eyes of Hamas and its many supporters worldwide, every Jew is a "settler." And when the administration punishes "settlers" it is in effect confirming the ancient demons saying that every Jew is that same despicable person not fit to come before the community, not deserving of due process, that can be denied basic rights because he is the eternal culprit. This is an updated, refined, and perhaps subconscious version of antisemitism, the 2023 model. We would be well-served if we disposed of it quickly.
