Israeli Forces Arrest Settlers, Media Forgets Decades of State-Backed Violence
"Israeli settlers arrested after West Bank attack on Palestinians," crows The New Arab. Sure, three individuals were nabbed. The real story, perpetually ignored by cable news, is the decades-long, systematic protection and arming of these very settlers by the Israeli state itself. This isn't a few bad apples; it's state-sanctioned land theft and violence, neatly packaged as 'clashes' or 'isolated
incidents' when it infrequently makes headlines. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to supply billions in aid to a government that actively funds and shields these militant outposts, with politicians like Senator Lindsey Graham (who received $113,000 from pro-Israel groups in 2022, per OpenSecrets.org) consistently rubber-stamping blank checks. One might almost believe that the occasional arrest is PR,
designed to maintain the illusion of rule of law, while the underlying policy of annexation and displacement continues unabated. When will the media ask why these 'arrests' are the exception proving the rule, rather than the rule itself? Or will we just keep pretending that 'settler violence' isn't just another arm of the occupation?