Israel’s top West Bank general warns of ‘one match'; a sitting MK swings the sledgehammer the next day

At a security assessment convened at Central Command on Monday, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth — the most senior IDF officer in the West Bank — said there had been “a significant decline in the scale of [Palestinian] terrorism over the past two years, but there is one match that could ignite everything in an instant – nationalist crime.” The IDF’s attention, he added, “is constantly being diverted to such incidents instead of thwarting Palestinian terrorism.” The quotes come from Channel 12 and are relayed by the Times of Israel; Ynet and the Jerusalem Post carried the same account independently, and the Post lists Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder and Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig. Gen. Kobi Heller among those present. Channel 12 also reports that when Netanyahu asked Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir what the army would do if the West Bank erupted, Zamir replied that the military had not come prepared to present that at the meeting.

On Tuesday, Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot took a sledgehammer to a Palestinian memorial in Madama, south of Nablus, while IDF soldiers and Border Police secured the site. Sukkot confirmed his participation to Haaretz, saying it was done in full coordination with the military and that the memorial honoured militants who had killed dozens of Israelis. The army’s account is the opposite: the IDF accused Sukkot of acting “deceptively and manipulatively,” and Netanyahu, quoted by the Times of Israel, called the episode “unacceptable.” The same day in Jannatah, south of Bethlehem, activists from Rabbis for Human Rights said they were pepper-sprayed and assaulted by settlers while erecting a fence around a harassed Palestinian village, and that soldiers “stood by and watched.” AFP photographer Ilia Yefimovich photographed settlers arriving with sticks. No arrests were reported.

Assessment: The gap to watch is not between the army and the settlers but between the army and the cabinet it briefs. Ynet says the data presented on Monday showed falling Palestinian attacks alongside rising nationalist crime; none of the three write-ups published the figures, which is itself a decision. Katz’s own readout from the same meeting foregrounded a “dramatic increase” in settlement and praise for camp-clearing operations in northern Samaria. Bluth’s warning is therefore being absorbed by a political leadership nine weeks from an election that needs the settler right’s turnout. Sukkot’s claim of “full coordination” and the IDF’s charge of manipulation cannot both be true; one of the two institutions is misrepresenting the day.