Huckabee’s ‘terrorism’ label puts settler leaders, and Israel’s government, on the spot - analysis

Many in the Jewish communities beyond the Green Line have insisted for years that reports from the United Nations and its ilk of so-called settler violence were overblown and misleading.

Indeed, deep dives by entities like Regavim, going line-for-line in incident reports, showed that what was accepted by the international community as settler violence was more often a road getting repaired, a sheep wandering off its land or Jews going to quietly visit their holiest site.

But with that pushback came a qualifier: There are indeed rotten apples, but they are few in nature, and should be dealt with like any other criminals, rather than being used to paint with a broad brush a larger, law-abiding segment of Israeli society.

Now, push is coming to shove.

Mike Huckabee, perhaps the friendliest and most empathetic US ambassador to Israel that Jerusalem has known, said on Saturday that there should be “severe consequences” for violent perpetrated against Palestinians by Jewish residents of nearby communities.

The comments came during a meeting Huckabee arranged in the town of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah, which is home to a significant number of US citizens.

“Our clear message is that crime is crime. Terror is terror,” Huckabee, who has grown increasingly vocal of “Israeli terror,” especially violence committed against Palestinian-Americans, told the press.

“When people do it, they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences,” Huckabee said, adding that “the government has a responsibility” to protect Palestinians in the region.

So now, Huckabee has put those communities’ leaders, and the Israeli government, on the spot. He’s agreeing with them: that the issue of “settler violence” is limited to a few bad apples, or as Huckabee said, a few hundred, which is “a few hundred too many.”

He’s in concurrence that this is not a settlements-wide issue, and that each incident should be handled like any other alleged criminal incident. This is exactly what many of those pushing back on the settler violence narrative keep saying.

But, thus far, there doesn’t seem to be appreciation for Huckabee’s alignment, nor cooperation.

And that is likely going to come back to bite. If those communities can’t get behind Huckabee, who refuses to call Judea and Samaria the West Bank, who has touted the Jews’ historical connection to the land, who consistently visited those communities and touted their importance to Israel, then sooner rather than later, he’s going to call in the calvary.

And it won’t be the IDF. It will be the White House. That’s exactly the last entity the Israeli government or those communities want to be dealing with a few bad apples, as it will feed right into the international community’s narrative.

Local councils deal with local problems. National governments deal with national problems. But more direct White House involvement in the matter will make this the international problem that so many claim it to be.