How delusional are settler leaders? This delusional:
Police arrested three settlers of Yitzhar on Wednesday on suspicion of attacking policemen in the West Bank settlement earlier in the day.
Police said the three were arrested after being identified by police officers who suffered a hail of stones upon entering the settlement. The men have been remanded for interrogation. Rabbi Hoshaya Harari, head of one of the settlement's yeshivas, was also detained for questioning.
Dozens of teens attacked on Wednesday police officers that arrived at the settlement of Yitzhar on a tour to inspect security arrangements of educational facilities in the place.
The settlers, some of them masked, hurled stones at the policemen and caused damage to a police car.
Sources at the "Od Yosef Chai" yeshiva in Yizthar told Ynet in response to the arrest: "The yeshiva protests the lies concocted by the police regarding what took place here. The police were irresponsible to enter the community after they have been 'inflaming tensions' with residents at the settlement as a whole, and specifically with the yeshiva in recent months, by arresting head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yizhak Shapira, and other people."
"The yeshiva considers the conduct of the policeman, who after exiting the community stopped his car and shot as the students, to be extremely severe," one of the yeshiva's head added.
How about this? The non-insane population of Israel, the vast majority of Israelis who do not want the settlements to remain, have been "inflamed" by the actions of settlers like those in Yitzhar. So we gather up, say, a million or so rocks and hurl them at every settler we see. We throw them at settlers shopping in Tel Aviv, at settlers praying at the Western Wall, at settlers walking on the streets of Israeli cities. After all, they "inflamed" us, right? Therefore, if they get hurt, it's their fault. We could do that – or we can choose to be moral people who support the democratic process.
Of course, I urge Israelis to choose the moral high ground. The question is, how long will they continue to do so in the face of wanton settler violence and disrespect?
Meanwhile, the IDF has decided to remove its security patrols and soldiers from Yitzhar because of the mounting settler violence.