'US security guards draw weapons after diplomatic convoy attacked by settlers in West Bank'

[bemildred]

A convoy of vehicles belonging to the American consulate in Jerusalem was attacked by stone-throwing far-right settlers near the West Bank outpost of Adi Ad, Palestinians reported on Friday. The incident nearly prompted US security personnel, who were armed with M-16 automatic rifles, to confront the assailants.

The convoy was driving through southern Samaria when it came under a hail of stones.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/US-security-guards-draw-weapons-after-diplomatic-convoy-attacked-by-settlers-in-West-Bank-386496

[bemildred]

1. Settlers attack US Consulate staff in West Bank

Several settlers on Friday hurled rocks at members of Jerusalem’s US Consulate near an illegal West Bank outpost, leading American security personnel to draw their weapons, Israeli media reported. The clash ended without injuries, though light damage was caused to consulate cars.

Consulate staff were touring near the Adei Ad outpost, northeast of Ramallah, along with a number of Palestinians from the nearby village of Turmus Ayya. According to Ynet News, villagers said thousands of olive tree saplings in their lands had been uprooted by local settlers in recent days. A number of villagers with US citizenship invited consulate staff to view the damage up close.

When the visitors arrived and exited their vehicles, a number of settlers pelted them with rocks. This led security guards to draw their weapons. The consulate staff promptly left the scene, ending the incident without anyone being hurt. The rocks caused some light damage to consulate cars.

Police confirmed the incident to Ynet, and noted the tour had not been coordinated with Israeli authorities.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/settlers-attack-us-consulate-staff-in-west-bank/

[oberliner]

2. This is insane

These people are seriously absolutely deranged and must be stopped.

[bemildred]

3. Always a pleasure when we can agree.

Not reality-based, that's for sure. After the Benghazi "scandal", they are going to get themselves shot up.

[oberliner]

6. Not to be cold, but they deserve it

You can't throw rocks at a convoy of US officials. What if they had actually hurt or killed someone?

[shaayecanaan]

17. no, they don't

If you approve of summary execution for people who throw stones then you approve of the sharpeville massacre.

[oberliner]

18. Summary execution?

I'm saying that if you throw rocks at US diplomats, they are going to draw their weapons. They have a right to defend themselves, and you deserve what you get. If one of the attackers got shot in the leg, for instance, they would've deserved it.

[Israeli]

7. Its not insane ...

....its normal for The Wild West Bank .

[oberliner]

19. That's what is insane

The fact that this is "normal" is the problem.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. How many were shot dead by the IDF like Palestinians

accused of the same thing?

[oberliner]

5. None, of course

These are settlers - it seems like they can get away with anything.

[Israeli]

8. and they sure do ....

......." get away with anything."

[oberliner]

11. Yes indeed

It's despicable.

[Scootaloo]

9. It takes them assaulting non-Arab Americans for your eyes to open, I guess.

Well, better late than never, I suppose.

[oberliner]

10. Huh?

No idea what that means.

They have been assaulting Palestinians for decades with impunity.

[Scootaloo]

12. And when it's been pointed out, you try to call it into doubt

"Golly how do you know these are settlers?"

or

"I do not approve of your source therefor your story is false"

or other, similar bullshit.

The only difference between your past denials and deflections, and this time, is that this time it's non-Arab americans gettign the assault. and there are no deflections or denials coming from you about it.

[oberliner]

13. What are you talking about?

I do call out poor sources and questionable reporting, as I know you do as well (with good reason), but I've always condemned settlers for such behavior. I think it's despicable. I've been doing that since long before you arrived here.

In any case, the behavior of these settler thugs is one of the many reasons I have been a tireless supporter of the Geneva Initiative and have promoted it at every opportunity.

[Scootaloo]

14. I'm talking about stuff like this:

I know technically the international community considers neighborhoods in East Jerusalem to be settlements, but I think there is a significant difference between a place like Gilo and a settlement like Itamar which is located deep within the West Bank.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=564006

And stuff like this:

How do they know it was a settler driving the vehicle?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113489045#post8

And of course, an arab bus driver found lynched in a bus in a settlement couldn't have possibly be killed by a settler:
http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=87936

Also a weird belief that a child living in settlements is not a settler:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=48570
(despite your statement in the prior thread that anyone living in a settlement is a settler.)

When settlers firebomb Palestinians, rather than comment you get upset that reuters used the word "Jewish' to describe, er, Jews:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/113416492#post2

Another poster in these threads characterized your position on I/P as bveing "Bipolar' and I think that's actually fairly accurate, because you really seem to waffle between being against the violence, and denying that there is any violence at all.

Anyway, that's what i'm talkign about, with regard to how it took you this damn long to notice what's going on. And those links are just from the first page of a search result, you've been here a while, so I'm sure there's more.

Ahem.

Now, the problem isn't the "bad behavior' of the settlers, but the fact that there are these settlers at all. The under-the-table annexation of the west bank by Israel is just as illegal as an over-the-table one. The settlers are told by their government that what they are doing is not only okay, but righteous. and the government tells them this no matter what. And as we have seen many times throughout history, person given impunity will act with impunity. These attacks are not "bad apples" behaving poorly, but are a natural and expected outgrowth of the settlement enterprise itself.

That is, so long as there are settlers, there will be violence.

And the problem with the Geneva Initiative is that it simply assumes that these settlements are a given. They will be imposed on Palestine regardless of what Palestinians want. The criminal enterprise is rewarded with legitimacy, while the victims of the crime are told to shut up and sit down.

The Geneva initiative, as is common with such proposals, elevates Israeli wants above Palestinian rights. Which is a major factor in why it's a defunct idea (the other, larger factor, begin that Israel has no interest in any solution that is not the full annexation of the west bank and removal of the Arabs living there.)

[oberliner]

16. I think those are all reasonable points

I appreciate you taking the time to point them out. I do get bogged down in minor points a lot of the time on here so I can understand how you could've gotten the impression that you have. I clearly have a few pet peeves that I let get to me, as I'm sure you and other posters do as well.

In terms of responding to threads, I am not sure that saying "that's terrible" or what have you in response to every post about settlers doing awful things is all that productive and/or thought-provoking. Much like when there is a post about something awful happening to Israelis, I would assume folks feel bad about it even if they don't make a "that's terrible" post in response.

In any case, my personal view is that the entire settlement apparatus needs to be dismantled in the West Bank as it was in Gaza. Perhaps there can be mutually agreed upon land swaps creating some exceptions. I do think Jerusalem is a bit more complex though.

In my opinion, the Geneva Initiative is the most reasonable means by which an agreement can be reached that could be acceptable to all concerned and lead to a long lasting peace, so I promote that whenever I can.

I understand that not everyone agrees with me on that, but therein lies the purpose of discussion forums like this one.

[oberliner]

15. Adi Ad settlers have also thrown rocks at IDF soldiers

That whole outpost needs to be dismantled post haste.