The brutal reality in the West Bank under Israeli occupation: ongoing and systematic violence and repression against the Palestinians. Both Israeli soldiers and ultra-right settlers are murdering people, shooting them down, destroying their homes, pillaging the land where they have lived for centuries.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a coalition of right-wing parties, including outright fascists, with a large base in the illegal settlements on the West Bank. The regime is preparing for the logical conclusion of this campaign of terror and murder: the forcible displacement of millions of Palestinians and the incorporation of the West Bank into Israel.
Leaders of the fascist parties speak openly of their determination to remove the entire Arab population of the West Bank and annex the territory. In this, they are modeling themselves on the pogroms against Arabs which accompanied the foundation of Israel in 1947-48. This campaign, which today would be called “ethnic cleansing,” transformed the Arab-majority territory of Palestine into the Jewish-majority state of Israel.
The Israeli aggression on the West Bank is taking place with the full approval of the US government. The Biden administration certainly green-lighted the operation in advance, and voiced approval of it after the fact.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday:
We have said this many times: We support, certainly, Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups… Israel is a close ally and partner, and we are in touch with the national security and, certainly, the defense officials. So don’t have anything to read out on our conversation, but we are in regular contact.
The coverage in the corporate media took its cue from Biden in its indifference to the barbarism displayed by Israel on the West Bank, where military violence has been combined with rampages by armed settlers against Palestinian towns and villages to enforce the increasingly stifling grip of the occupation regime. At least 155 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers and settlers so far this year, the largest total since the second intifada in 2002.
Meanwhile, the media witch-hunts anyone who criticizes the conduct of the state of Israel, condemning them as anti-Semites. This is especially directed against public figures, most recently the musician Roger Waters, founder of the rock band Pink Floyd, who has been a principled supporter of the Palestinian people for many decades and is now one of the few prominent opponents of the US-NATO war in Ukraine.
The American media maintains a shameless double standard in relation to the war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks on Palestinians living in the West Bank. While covering up Israeli violence and dispossession in the occupied territories, the media has been engaged for more than a year in a hysterical campaign claiming the Russian military is engaging in genocidal crimes in Ukraine.