Extremist settlers aren't pioneers, they're the enemy

They're trying to force their political agenda on us through violence — the establishment of a Khomeini-style state. We already have one Iran outside our borders. We don’t need another one inside.

The state has become their playground. They set up illegal outposts and too often, the state caves to their whims. They carry out pogroms against Palestinians and in far too many cases, there isn’t even a single arrest.

They harass IDF soldiers — and as we’ve come to expect, the state fails to catch the offenders. But when one of them gets hurt, as happened last weekend, we suddenly hear wailing and outrage. Because they’re allowed to harm others, but harming them is off-limits.

In the past, there was at least some effort to maintain appearances — some condemnation, even if half-hearted. Not anymore. “Live fire by the IDF against Jews is a dangerous and unacceptable red line that must be thoroughly investigated and lead to personal consequences,” wrote Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He merely sounded the alarm.

The hooligans are already threatening the battalion commander, calling for his head and at this rate, they might even try him in a kangaroo court. Only later did Smotrich bother to add that attacking IDF soldiers is forbidden. Lip service. Nothing more. It’s clear where he stands: not with the soldiers, but with the thugs. He's the right-wing equivalent of Ofer Cassif — always siding against the IDF.

Naveh Dromi, part of the pro-settler media department, wrote in these very pages Sunday that these are “pioneers,” and that if something similar happened to a teen at a Tel Aviv anti-government protest, the media wouldn’t let go of the story.

Come on. If a group of protesters had attacked IDF soldiers — throwing stones at them, damaging their equipment, later surrounding and damaging an IDF base — they’d all be in jail. She’s right about one thing: we should compare.

Anti-government protesters are arrested more frequently and for much less. The hilltop hooligans she defends? They're rarely arrested — if at all — despite doing much worse. But paper suffers everything.

Right-wing activist Erez Tadmor chimed in: “In the absence of footage or evidence supporting the IDF Spokesperson’s version, the incident in Binyamin — the beginning of which is documented here — looks like a serious case of a battalion commander losing control.” That’s exactly how anti-Zionist left-wing propaganda sounds. They too distrust the IDF spokesperson. They too take the rioters’ side over the soldiers'.

This didn’t start last weekend. It didn’t start last month. An anti-Zionist right has been growing in Israel for quite some time. This movement has a spiritual leader: Yitzchak Ginsburgh of Yitzhar, affiliated with the messianic wing of Chabad.

Just like his anti-Zionist counterparts on the left, he declares: “The Zionist spirit must be uprooted… governments, left or right, must be overthrown. And when a new one rises, overthrow it too — and so on, until a Torah government is established.” Anti-Zionism, Sharia-state-style — or rather, a state run by Jewish religious law.

To be clear, Ginsburgh even lashes out at those mistakenly assumed to be his supporters: “That public is more enslaved to the establishment than the secular public. The national-religious public is still in Egypt.” Most of the national-religious public in Israel rejects Ginsburgh’s Kahanist-Khomeinist vision.

But we can see what’s happening: voices of support and justification from the right are emerging. People think we're just dealing with “a few reckless teens.” That’s a mistake. These are ideologically driven— committed to hate, revenge, bloodshed and open contempt for the IDF and the state. Smotrich may support them — but it’s not even clear they support him. At best, he’s their useful idiot.

Instead of calling them what they are — dangerous militias — we romanticize them as “hilltop youth.” And they always receive two responses. First, condemnation: “We strongly condemn any act of aggression against IDF soldiers,” the West Bank municipal organization Yesha Council said Sunday. Very nice of them.

Then comes the second part: demands to fulfill their every settler whim. It’s bad for the country. It drains the IDF. It’s anti-Zionist. But we can count on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir to arrange them some kind of settlement authorization — at a cost of tens of millions to the state. They may despise the Zionist state but they squeeze every last drop from it.

We would do well to remember what happened in Lebanon in recent decades. Hezbollah’s militias started small. But they grew stronger, empowered by their murderous ideology. Eventually, they hijacked the state. We're not there yet. But to make sure we never get there — we need to recognize the danger for what it is.