Bret Stephens warns Jewish extremist violence poses ‘direct threat’ to Israel

Shin Bet data published this week showed that Jewish extremists carried out 660 attacks against Palestinians during the first half of 2026, up from 440 during the same period last year — a 50 percent increase.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

Prominent New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, a vocal longtime supporter of Israel, sharply condemned extremist violence against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, arguing that attacks by Jewish extremists threaten Israel’s security, international standing, and moral credibility.

Stephens, who has consistently argued for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, argued in a Tuesday column for The New York Times that support for Israel requires confronting actions by Israelis that he believes undermine the country’s democratic values.

In the column, titled “A Blunt Warning to Israel,” he condemned what he describes as “Jewish terrorism” in Judea and Samaria, saying that extremists who target Palestinian civilians are harming the very state they claim to support.

Stephens, a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, said he decided to condemn Judea and Samaria extremists “because the terrorism is a menace to Palestinian lives and property, or an affront to Jewish ethics, or a stain on Israel’s reputation,” he wrote.

“It’s also a direct threat to Israel’s security and statehood and thus to Zionism itself.”

Shin Bet data published this week showed that Jewish extremists carried out 660 attacks against Palestinians during the first half of 2026, up from 440 during the same period last year — a 50 percent increase.

Many of the attacks have involved Judea and Samaria settlers physically assaulting Palestinians — including elderly women and children — along with torching Palestinian homes, vehicles, and mosques.

The figures also recorded 45 attacks against Israeli security forces.

Soldiers and police officers have repeatedly been assaulted by settlers while responding to incidents, while two Israeli activists were hospitalized with serious head wounds in February after being beaten near the Palestinian village of Qusra while attempting to document or prevent an attack.

Israeli officials are becoming increasingly vocal about the phenomena.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has called attacks on Palestinians and Israeli troops “morally and ethically unacceptable,” warning that they inflict “extraordinary strategic damage” during a multi-front war.

He stressed that the perpetrators do not represent the broader settlement movement and said the violence threatens Israel’s security, stability, and national values.

Zamir’s comments echoed a warning issued in March by Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of the IDF’s Central Command and a settler himself, who called extremist violence “organized and systematic” and said it “undermines Israel’s security.”

In March, the IDF diverted an infantry battalion that had been intended for operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon to Judea and Samaria amid a wave of extremist violence, forcing the military to redirect personnel during an already acute manpower shortage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also allegedly called violence against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria a “metastasizing cancer” in a government cabinet meeting, according to Israel’s Channel 13.

Settler violence has also drawn unusually sharp criticism from prominent pro-Israel lawmakers in Washington.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that the United States was “concerned” by such violence and expected Israel to act, while Reps. Ritchie Torres and Daniel Goldman called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted and held fully accountable by Israeli authorities.

This has all unfolded amid continuing Palestinian violence against Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

Last week, a Palestinian who seized an Israeli rifle during a confrontation near the village of Tell fatally shot Benayahu Mellet, a 32-year-old father of two serving with a local security squad, and Maj. Yuval Ezra, a 27-year-old IDF officer who had been dispatched to the scene.

Despite the persistence of Palestinian terrorism, settler violence has become one of the most sensitive challenges facing Israel’s supporters abroad.

These concerns are unfolding amid a broader decline in American public support for Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the ensuing Gaza war, with polling showing increasingly negative views of both Israel and its government.

For pro-Israel advocates, the challenge is to preserve the decades-old US-Israel relationship by confronting violence committed by Israelis without minimizing the continuing Palestinian terrorist threat or accepting criticism they regard as disproportionate.

Bret StephensJudea and Samariasettler violence