The position of the Civilian Security Officer is unique to Israel: a settler who gives orders to IDF soldiers as if he is an officer, but is not actually held responsible under the military system. So, to whom is he accountable? By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz I remember my first Ravshatz (Hebrew acronym for: Civilian Security Officers in Coordination with the IDF -- CSO). It was in December of 1988, i.e. in the Bronze Age, and yours truly was three months out of basic training and found himself in a small and isolated settlement. The man who commanded…

The settlement movement registered major victories this year on various fronts. Its representatives are reaching new heights in politics, the judiciary and the media. One out of five residents east of the Green Line is a settler. The expansion of settlements continues unabated, and - most importantly - settlers are in full control of the Israeli national narrative. In 2012, as more and more observers declared the death of the two-state solution, the settler became the new normal. By Lisa Goldman and Mairav Zonszein For decades, the settler movement and Israel’s secular, largely Ashkenazi urban elite have been playing a game of…

In an atypical move, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu contacted, through an envoy, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Friday to express the severity of Thursday's firebomb attack on a Palestinian taxi cab that left six people, including two children, injured. According to Haaretz, the prime minister conveyed to Abbas that Israeli security forces would do everything in their power to track down whoever is responsible for the attack and bring them to justice. This is considered unusual behavior for the prime minister, who has in the past reacted to "price tag" attacks such as the torching of a mosque with a mere statement…

One week after Ynet reported settlers' claims that "anarchists" and Palestinians were filmed committing arson in a field in the West Bank, Maan News published a video clip and report supplied by people who participated in the incident. The video obtained by Maan shows that the settlers were - well, let's just say they were mistaken (I am feeling generous today). In a November 7 item headlined "Leftists filmed torching Gush Etzion land," Ynet reports as follows: Six foreign nationals and Palestinians set fires alight near the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin in the Gush Etzion bloc. Police said…