Qusra and Netanyahu’s two failures

On Sunday morning, a group of Israeli settlers set up camps outside three houses on the outskirts of Qusra, near Nablus, in the West Bank. They surrounded the houses, preventing those inside from leaving and those wishing to enter from reaching them. The Wall Street Journal reported that among those trapped were Italian citizens, and Americans were also involved; some were the owners of the houses. On Thursday, the Israeli army entered the village with the task of removing the settlers and, at the end of the operation, stated that the security forces had dismantled two illegal outposts and arrested an Israeli citizen. The account given by the residents of Qusra, however, is that Israeli soldiers attempted to occupy their homes: the IDF has rejected the accusation, stating that the soldiers had been ordered not to enter Palestinian homes.

However, this week’s events in the West Bank highlight the failure of both a policy and a relationship. The political issue concerns the relationship between the government and violent settlers, whom the authorities are struggling to rein in after having done everything possible to avoid holding them accountable for their actions. The relationship that is increasingly faltering is that between the Israeli government and the Americans. The U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel, spoke out in a post on X: “The actions of those who carried out this horrific act of terrorism aimed at intimidating and harassing this family are disgusting.” Yes, Huckabee used the word ‘terrorism’, and this is not the first time he has used strong language, such as when he condemned the attacks against Christians in Israel. This government thought that the Trump administration would give it free rein, would support annexations and turn a blind eye to the settlers’ behaviour. But not even the first Trump administration had been lenient on these issues and had repeatedly reined in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.