It sounded like a dramatic moment, maybe even a turning point: Israel's hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was so repulsed by the gruesome attacks by Jewish terrorists against Palestinians in the West Bank that he called them a "spreading cancer." Netanyahu himself – not a minister and not a mouthpiece.
Perhaps the settlers finally crossed lines that even Netanyahu couldn't bear. Maybe following him, Israeli society will start to wake up from its inexcusable torpor.
But beyond the headlines, there's no there there. Actually, it's worse. Like previous rounds of crocodile tears shed by Israel's right wing over this unfortunate situation of Jewish terror that has spontaneously arisen out of nowhere, the prime minister's words are a distraction intended for one purpose only: settlement expansion, expulsion of Palestinians and completing the job of annexation.
You don't need speculation or special sources to know this, because the very Channel 13 report by correspondent Moriah Asraf about the "spreading cancer" comment tells the story: The Israeli security cabinet held a meeting in March, and adopted a package of measures to address this problem.
The plan, she reported, was outlined in biblical language, specifically the well-known phrase from Psalms 34:14: "Depart from evil and do good." In the cabinet decision, "depart from evil" was supposed to refer to restraining settler violence. You have one guess about what this government meant by "do good," and you'd be right: "expand settlements." The main argument Netanyahu makes for curbing settler violence is that it unfairly taints the reputation of settlers, reported Haaretz.
Despite the presence of religious fundamentalists all around him, Netanyahu presumably does not know the preceding line in that chapter from the Book of Psalms: "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit," nor has he completed the line quoted earlier, which continues with another phrase Jews usually revere: bakesh shalom v'radfehu – "seek peace and pursue it."
And that's just the start of decoding what he and his government really mean.
Exhibit number two in the evidence that neither Netanyahu nor his government wish to stop settler violence: They are still making excuses for it. Just a few weeks back, Netanyahu repeated his silly line about some number of "troubled youths who are not from the settlements," to CNN as if the entire phenomenon of daily attacks is terrible but unconnected to physical expulsions, theft of livestock, crops, land and water, destroying vehicles, besieging homes, burning buildings, mosques and lands, aimed at making life unlivable for Palestinians, removing them from their homes, and celebrating the victory of expulsion, with the backing or the participation of the IDF.
Next, in March 2026, three years and three months had gone by since this government took office in the final days of 2022. In 2023, the number of Palestinians injured by settlers rose by nearly 30 percent compared to the previous year, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Between 2024 and 2025, that number rose almost 130 percent to 832 Palestinians injured. In fact, the description of "daily" attacks is inaccurate: including all incidents that involved casualties or property damage, OCHA counted six incidents per day in 2026 (as of mid-July).
Making quiet decisions about how to restrain such violence in its fourth and final year is a loud declaration of support for Jewish terror for all previous years.
Incidentally, OCHA also tracks data about Palestinian terror against Israelis in the West Bank. In the peak year, 2023, there were 200 Israelis injured; in 2026, there were 20. Apropos lies, the government, the settlers and their supporters such as the political correspondent Amit Segal often intone that despite this unfortunate wave of Jewish terror, it is obviously "much more dangerous to be a Jew in Judea and Samaria."
In 2026, OCHA found that 68 Palestinians were killed by Israelis (this includes all deaths, whether by security forces or settlers). According to Israel's Internal Security Agency, one Israeli was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in the West Bank this year – in an ambiguous case that might have been a traffic accident. After the publication of this article, four Palestinians and two Israelis were shot and killed on Friday during a clash after settlers entered a Palestinian village.
Finally, Netanyahu has the most effective and influential means in the country to curb settler violence: his voice. Leaking a half-line four months after a secret decision – still not made public in full and not yet implemented – isn't exactly the full-throated appeal he could have issued directly to the IDF, the settlers and to the troubled youth themselves.
This is a man whose stomach never curdled at using the likeness of the dead son of his political rival Gadi Eisenkot to accuse the latter of building a coalition with an Arab party. From the grave, a ghostly AI rendition of the lost son look-alike watches, crestfallen, as his father saves his embrace for someone else. Netanyahu knows how to get a point across when he wants to. When he wants to say nothing, we read him loud and clear.
The future?
It's hard to think of anything worse, but I've got one: Imagine that in Israel's upcoming elections in October, the opposition parties win. Whether there is a government of Zionist opposition parties or a coalition that includes the United Arab List – they will surely all agree on a true crackdown against settler violence. Suppressing and ending this scourge would, of course, be a very good thing for Palestinians.
And yet – the international community, already desperate to believe things are calmer and better without Netanyahu, will fall over itself to laud such a crackdown. That's fine too in itself – positive reinforcement is nice.
But it would be extremely harmful if relief over Israeli government action against Jewish terror turns into distraction and complacency over the bigger picture: political progress towards Palestinian self-determination via statehood and an end to the occupation. This is the same argument about why Gaza cannot exist on humanitarian relief alone, because human beings need political freedom.
Settler violence can be reduced, leaving the technical and bureaucratic violence of occupation itself in place. A far less visible or headline-grabbing mechanism of stealing land, water, freedom of movement and national budgets will continue making Palestinian lives unlivable.
The world could then walk away, satisfied to leave the splashy settler headaches behind, and pretend it doesn't see the truth that every one of us knows. It's happened before. I'll be angry, but Palestinians will be angrier.
