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The terror in Qusra, in Tell, is Israeli. Calling this terror Jewish was meant to erase or dilute Israel's direct responsibility | Gideon Levy
The Right Is Correct, There's No Jewish Terror. There's Only Israeli Terror
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Israeli settlers alongside Border Guard forces in the West Bank village of Qusra, this week. Credit: Itai Ron
The terror in Qusra, in Tell, is Israeli. Calling this terror Jewish was meant to erase or dilute Israel's direct responsibility
Gideon Levy
FollowAugust 16, 2026
An Israeli like you or I is interviewed by the British journalist Piers Morgan on his eponymous program, and for several long minutes she refuses to answer a simple question: Is the life of a Palestinian worth as much as that of an Israeli?
Morgan asks the question four times, and four times the settler leader Daniella Weiss refuses to answer. She even takes her reply into the realm of sexual equality – anything to avoid a reply.
Finally, she mumbles something about God who created everyone, in order to rebuff the annoying interviewer. He reminds her of the words of another settler, Yehuda Shimon from the Havat Gilad outpost, who a few days earlier told the BBC that the life of one Jew is equal to that of 10 million Palestinians.
Millions of people around the world hear these statements; what do they say to themselves? That this is Israel. Israelis hear these statements; what do they say to themselves? That this is not what Israel is.
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What does Weiss have to do with us? She doesn't represent us. Nor do National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The deranged remarks of Defense Minister Yisrael Katz? Nothing to do with us.
The "hilltop youth" also don't represent us. The pogroms in the territories? That's not us. Kahanism? Nothing to do with us? Half of all Israelis even say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't represent them.
IDF forces confront activists who came to support Palestinian families in the West Bank village of Qusra, Friday. Credit: Itai Ron
Israel has become a strange, unique country; none of the evil taking place here represents us. A true wonder. The extremists are not us. The ugliness: not ours. Jewish supremacy: no connection to us. Nothing problematic belongs to us. Even the government doesn't represent us. So who does? Where are the millions of Israelis for whom nothing Israel does is them?
It's time we recognize that Israel is precisely what viewers in Britain and the U.S. see. In their eyes, Weiss is Israel and Israel is Weiss. After the deaths of tens of thousands of Gazans, including thousands of babies, and after the ugly displays of Jewish supremacy in the West Bank, on a daily basis, it's no longer possible to tell the world that "it's not us" and "not in our name." The world simply no longer buys it. (The interesting question is how many Israelis still buy these imaginary distinctions.)
The first to say this, perhaps unintentionally, was, of all people, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. From deep within his delusional vision of Israel stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, he uttered the words "Jewish terror" for the first time.
After years of our saying there is no Jewish terror, that it's an oxymoron, along comes the Arkansas Baptist and calls a spade a spade: Israeli terror. The right, which for years has claimed that there is no Jewish terror, is correct. There is no Jewish terror. There is – is there ever! – Israeli terror.
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Calling this terror Jewish was meant to erase or dilute Israel's direct responsibility. This served the state, of course. But it also served Israelis, who could keep telling themselves that there's this group of extremists that doesn't represent the state, much less them.
But then Huckabee came, unpacked the lie and placed the responsibility on Israel, collectively. He is right. The terror in Qusra, in Tell, is Israeli. The State of Israel, not Weiss or Shimon, is responsible for it. It is carried out on its behalf and represents it, and we should wake up and recognize that to the world, it represents us. All Israelis.
The world no longer buys our distinctions between the true (and beautiful) Israel and the (ugly) Israel on every screen in the world, and rightly so. We should accept that from a historical perspective, we are all Weiss, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
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Opinion | The right is correct, there's no Jewish terror. There's only Israeli terror
Opinion | The right is correct, there's no Jewish terror. There's only Israeli terror
John Locke
I find that about 90% of hasbara is an appeal to westerners for acceptance.
Luca Gnucci
Gideon Levy , thank you Sir.
You are doing a moral duty.
For everyone, whether in the world or within the Israeli borders. Jewish or non
Jewish. You are waving the flag of humanity. Thank you.
Elisabeth Ritchie
This is a genuine query. Surely it is both Israeli and Jewish. Israelis would not expel Palestinians from their homes if it were not for a belief that they are chosen and God gave them the land. That is a religious belief, so Jewish. The fact that many Jews in Israel are agnostic or atheist, indeed secular if nothing else, makes this even more puzzling. How do secular Jews reconcile their colonisation of Palestine if they don't actually believe in the Biblical myth which justifies it? A genuine question.
Israel is conducting a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank Ehud Olmert
In the name of Jewish supremacy: How Israeli TV distorts West Bank violence Yasmine Levi
Calling this terror Jewish was meant to erase or dilute Israel's direct responsibility. This served the state, of course. But it also served Israelis, who could keep telling themselves that there's this group of extremists that doesn't represent the state, much less them.
But then Huckabee came, unpacked the lie and placed the responsibility on Israel, collectively. He is right. The terror in Qusra, in Tell, is Israeli. The State of Israel, not Weiss or Shimon, is responsible for it. It is carried out on its behalf and represents it, and we should wake up and recognize that to the world, it represents us. All Israelis.
The world no longer buys our distinctions between the true (and beautiful) Israel and the (ugly) Israel on every screen in the world, and rightly so. We should accept that from a historical perspective, we are all Weiss, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
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Haaretz.com
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Authorhttps://www.haaretz.com/.../000001a0-06b7-d337-a7f0...
HAARETZ.COM
Opinion | The right is correct, there's no Jewish terror. There's only Israeli terror
Opinion | The right is correct, there's no Jewish terror. There's only Israeli terror
John Locke
I find that about 90% of hasbara is an appeal to westerners for acceptance.
Luca Gnucci
Gideon Levy , thank you Sir.
You are doing a moral duty.
For everyone, whether in the world or within the Israeli borders. Jewish or non
Jewish. You are waving the flag of humanity. Thank you.
Elisabeth Ritchie
This is a genuine query. Surely it is both Israeli and Jewish. Israelis would not expel Palestinians from their homes if it were not for a belief that they are chosen and God gave them the land. That is a religious belief, so Jewish. The fact that many Jews in Israel are agnostic or atheist, indeed secular if nothing else, makes this even more puzzling. How do secular Jews reconcile their colonisation of Palestine if they don't actually believe in the Biblical myth which justifies it? A genuine question.
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