NETANYAHU CIRCUMSPECT ON SETTLER VIOLENCE
Trump has expressed his opposition to Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but his administration has put little pressure on Netanyahu’s right-wing, pro-settler government to change its policy.
UN bodies and most countries deem the settlements illegal under international law, but Israel rejects this, viewing the territory as disputed rather than occupied.
While Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and the Israeli military both blamed “Israeli rioters” for the attack on the diplomats, Netanyahu, whose coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, has been more circumspect.
He has said the diplomats entered a “sensitive area with a history of confrontations without prior coordination” with the Israeli military, and that the facts of the attack on Levine are “unclear”.
France urged Israeli authorities to arrest Saturday’s attackers and to end criminal violence in the West Bank, but by Sunday there was no announcement from Israeli authorities of any arrests in either of the two latest incidents.
