U.S. Expresses 'Concern' as West Bank Violence Hits Week 1,460
When the news calls settler violence 'worse and worse,' they imply a recent escalation. What they omit is that this 'worse and worse' has been the stated reality for decades, consistently ignored by U.S. administrations. For example, the State Department's own 2023 human rights report explicitly details pervasive settler violence and Israeli authorities' systemic failure to prosecute offenders,
documenting 1,700 settler attacks in 2022 alone. This isn't a new trend, it's the expected outcome when the U.S. provides $3.8 billion annually in military aid to Israel, alongside unqualified diplomatic cover, allowing the expansion of illegal settlements and the unchecked aggression of their inhabitants. We hear about cycles of violence, but rarely about the cycle of impunity. How many times
must settlers assault Palestinians, seize land, or torch olive groves before U.S. officials acknowledge it's not 'getting worse' but simply 'worse, again' in a pattern they actively enable? One might wonder if the 'concern' expressed by Washington is just pre-written boilerplate for an annual ritual of diplomatic hand-wringing over conditions it helps create.