Settlers Riot, Attacking Israeli Base and Post

Defense Minister Ehud Barak condemned what he called “a string of violent attacks by criminal groups of extremists,” adding that such “homegrown terror” would not be tolerated. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called an urgent meeting of defense officials, saying, “We must take care of these rioters with a heavy hand.”

In the past few years, small groups of settlers have pursued a campaign they call “price tag,” attacking Palestinian civilians and property as well as Israeli security forces in retaliation for government policies they oppose. Olive trees have been slashed and burned, mosques vandalized and army property damaged.

In the attack on the base, about 50 settlers used paint, nails and rocks, the military said. Soldiers dispersed the rioters and detained one man. In a separate episode, settlers stopped a car driven by a local Israeli commander and threw a brick at him. He was slightly injured.

The skirmish on the border with Jordan was a protest at Jordan’s efforts to intervene in Israel’s closure of a footbridge used by non-Muslims leading to the holy compound in Jerusalem revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The group cut through a closed military area and took over an abandoned structure near a Christian baptism site along the Jordan River. Troops removed them and arrested 17 people.

A settler named Hananel Dorfman told Army Radio: “It was a message to Jordan. We are not suckers. Stop intervening in our internal affairs, or we will intervene in yours.”

Late on Monday night, other settlers blocked a main West Bank road and threw stones at Palestinian vehicles.

Condemnation from within the settler leadership was fast and harsh. Danny Dayan, head of the settler council, called what was done disgraceful and ungrateful.

Yaacov Meidan, a settler rabbi, said such acts threatened the well-being of hundreds of thousands of settlers and the military.

“No one should dare take apart the cooperation of decades between us and the army,” he said on Israel Radio. “We should be shoulder to shoulder with the army. They are here day and night protecting us. No one should dare take apart this cooperation.”

He added: “Who are these 200 people? I have no idea. We have to break our heads with the army to deal with this. I have no answers. I am in shock over this thing.”

Alienating the military and government poses a political danger to the settler leaders, especially as international pressure increases on Israel to end West Bank settlement, a condition demanded by the Palestinians to return to negotiations over a future Palestinian state.

On Tuesday, a coalition of 20 human rights and aid groups, including Amnesty International, Oxfam International and Human Rights Watch, said they had noted an increase in the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past year.

Moreover, last Saturday, a soldier fired a tear-gas canister at a Palestinian demonstrator, Moustafa Tamimi, from close range out of the back of his jeep, killing him.

Representatives of the so-called quartet — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — began two days of meetings in Jerusalem on Tuesday in an effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks.

The advocacy groups also said there was “a growing disconnect between the quartet talks and the situation on the ground.”