The United States went slightly further in condemning surging West Bank settler violence than it has in the past on Wednesday, urging legal action, though it did not use the word “settler” and avoided criticizing Israel for not cracking down on the phenomenon.

“We condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and call for investigations, arrests and convictions of those responsible,” a US State Department spokesperson said in response to a query from The Times of Israel on the matter.

Previous statements from the State Department on the subject were slightly more vague and largely stressed the importance of maintaining stability in the West Bank, though this one does not mention either Israel or the Palestinians by name.

“We are in regular dialogue with partners about improving stability and security in the West Bank,” the State Department spokesperson said, indicating that the US is raising the matter with Israel behind closed doors.

Surging violence by Israeli settlers across the West Bank — largely unchecked by Israeli authorities — has been met with severe condemnation from Western allies in recent weeks.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been just about the only member of US President Donald Trump’s administration to criticize settler violence, calling perpetrators “terrorists,” while insisting that they’re not representative of the half-million Israelis living beyond the Green Line.

But he too has refrained from explicitly criticizing Israel’s handling of settler violence, which goes largely unchecked, though President Isaac Herzog insisted to CNN during an interview aired Wednesday that Israeli authorities were taking the issue seriously.

Herzog called the perpetrators “juvenile delinquents” and claimed “there is a major effort by our authorities to undermine these activities and bring people to justice.” He noted that a series of rare arrests were carried out earlier this week, though most of the near-daily settler attacks do not lead to arrests or prosecutions.

Herzog also likened the phenomenon to “inner-city violence,” though they are different, as the perpetrators in the West Bank often profess that they are acting out of ideological nationalist motives, and seek to expel Palestinians from the West Bank.

Still, Herzog........

© The Times of Israel