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Tracy Campbell
d͏s͏e͏p͏o͏o͏n͏S͏r͏t͏m͏8͏4͏m͏g͏3͏m͏h͏0͏i͏a͏5͏c͏l͏h͏c͏0͏8͏7͏4͏8͏2͏g͏h͏2͏0͏f͏u͏4͏a͏l͏6͏i͏4͏g͏8͏2͏3͏5͏6͏1͏7͏g͏h͏m͏f͏5͏7͏0͏g͏ ·
Haaretz opinion by Gideon Levy: "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.
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.
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.
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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A link to the Haaretz opinion piece is in comments. Unusually, it is not paywalled. The image is from an Independent (UK) article about Gideon Levy.
The image Haaretz used is a bog standard picture of Israeli occupation forces standing around brandishing automatic weapons in illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
Tracy Campbell
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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
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Tracy Campbell
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Opinion
The Right Is Correct, There's No Jewish Terror. There's Only Israeli Terror
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
Follow04:01 AM • August 16 2026 IDT
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.
Haaretz Opinions
Read the opinions shaping debate in Israel and beyondSign Up
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.
Related ArticlesIsraeli settler points loaded weapon at activists and Palestinians in West Bank Matan Golan
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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6Malcolm23:14
The phrase "Jewish terror" is a provocation, a slander and an insult to the millions of Jews who do not live in or support the genocidal state of Israel. There is indeed simply "Israeli terror." Let us all be unequivocal about where accountability lies.
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GodfreyMalcolm • 00:50
If the Jews of the world stood up they could stop Israel. Why don't they? Some do, not many. Therefore you are the problem and Levy is right. It's too late. If you eventually do stand up, after the trials, it will seem like you don't want any punishment to come your way. By then all recognizable Jews will be seen, for some generations, through the foggy lens now applied to the KKK and Nazis.The tribe will shrink, politicians won't be afraid of AIPAC, there will be hidden agendas again limiting many Jews lives and work and harassment. While Islam grows, Judaism will shrink. There are already only 16.6 million Jews and 4.2 billion Muslims. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Even Evangelicals are learning Muslim values are much closer to those of the 4.6 billion Christians than Judaism. Why allow Israel to create danger, fear, harassment of your fellow Jews? Is there still a question that Israel's almost unimaginable detailed brutality, sadist cruelty is genocidal?
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AAMalcolm • 02:50
I think you are being oversensitive. It is the way the language works. We're you offended by the use of Arab terrorism, or Islamic extremism? If we become too precise, we might not been able to even say hamas terrorism and we would have to narrow among some Hamas groups. The phrase Israeli terrorism is much worse because it includes 20% of marginalized Arab Israeli, who suffer discrimination from Israeli Jews.
Look at most of the conflicts. We say Germans in WW2, Russiana when we talk about Ukraine. Serbians in the balkan war, etc.
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5The Other israel16:49
one seems to forget that israel was only able to establish its state by the actions of the three large pre-state terror organizations: the Hagana / Palmach, Etzl and lehi. between them they murdered 10's of thousands and ethnically cleansed over 750,000 souls.
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Only half a JewThe Other israel • 22:08
Not to be picky but it was because of the British and the Balfour mandate that Israel was able to become a state. As far back as the late 19th century Britain favored for the Jews to have their own state and what better place than Palestine, Palestinians be damned. Not because they were friends of Jews, on the contrary they didn't want Jews from Russia and other eastern countries fleeing from the Russian Revolution ending up in Britain. W/O Britain there wouldn't be an Israel. Belfour was virulently antisemitic, a christian nationalist and wanted all Jews to leave GB and move to Palestine. I strongly recom. to read 'The 100 yr war on Palestine' to get a more true understanding about the creation of Israel and its enablers instead of all the white washed propaganda that has been sold to us over the last 80 years. Yes, the Israeli terror groups were highly and brutrally instrumental but couldn't exist w/o the Brits' consent.
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4Skysegel • 12:57
The Right Is Correct, There's No Jewish Terror. There's Only Israeli TerrorI'd like to narrow it even further. It's only Zionist's Terror.
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3DJ10:41
If the terror is effectively supported by the Jewish state, stems from Jewish beliefs (or an interpretation of them), is perpetrated by Jews (do any other groups participate?) and receives support from non-Israeli Jews: is it not reasonable to refer to it as Jewish terror even if it is a minority? "Islamic extremism" didn't get referred to as "Saudi Arabian extremism". States will not be absolved as long as they support any terror but making the connection clear between the two is for politicians and the media.
Mention Jewish terror or Israeli terror to a pro-Israel UK MP and both are likely to be branded antisemitic. As long as it's politically expedient to conflate them, it won't really matter what the label is.
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Umm NawasDJ • 10:54
Muslim Pakistanis, Turks and Kurds, and indeed the leftist Palestinian movements, have little to do with "Islamic extremism," so giving it a national specificity might have been useful. And there are Jews all over the world who oppose Israeli terrorism.
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2One sees the point • 09:37
of Levy's argument, but it perhaps obscures more than it clarifies: how much of this "Israeli terror" is perpetrated by the 20% of the Israeli population that is not Jewish? Very little, I suspect. The terminological solution is simple: "Jewish Israeli terror".
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CVOne sees the point • 10:00
As someone who is regularly accused of antisemitism, certainly the Jewish Israelis bear the crushing responsibility of the current disaster, but Palestinian Israelis aren't totally devoid of responsibility.
They could have acted more to fight the colonization of Palestine, which is not just destroying Palestine but is definitely destroying Israel too. At 20% of the population they had a real power of protest.
Now it's harder than it was yesterday, but it's still easier than tomorrow.
It's Israeli terror indeed : because Israelis allow it, and Israeli Arabs do too, even if they have less agency and power they still have some.
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I'm not at all sureCV • 10:50
that Palestinian Israelis have had sufficient breathing space to mount any sort of internal resistance. They were under martial law for 18 years after the creation of the Zionist entity and the surveillance within such a tiny territory under direct Jewish supremacist rule has been overwhelmingly intense. Resistance is one thing, collective suicide another. Armed opposition with any hope of having an impact could only be mounted from outside "Israel proper". Quiescence? Or the only viable form of samud? 20% of the population does not mean 20% of political power. A majority of Jewish Israelis quietly or rabidly support the Jewish Israeli terror. Palestinian Israelis suffer it.
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CVI'm not at all sure • 11:16
Palestinian Israelis form 20% of medical workers in Israel and more like 40% of pharmacists.
If they just had launched a general strike anywhere during the 70s or 80s or 90s when there still was no many settlers they had the power to cause real nuisance for Israelis and I don't think Israel who have shot them in the streets or send them to their jobs at gunpoint. Not then.
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In 1956,CV • 12:05
49 Palestinian Israelis were shot dead at Kafr Qasim by Israeli police. In 1976, Palestinian Israelis organised a general strike and mass demonstrations. Israeli security forces killed 6 Palestinians and injured more than a hundred. In October 2000, Palestinian Israelis mounted mass demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied territories at the beginning of the Second Intifada. Israeli police killed 13 Palestinian demonstrators, 12 of them citizens of Israel, and wounded hundreds. None of the police officers responsible for the killings was prosecuted. During the "mowing the lawn" assault on Gaza in 2021, Palestinian Israelis participated in a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest throughout Israel. Response: emergency measures, mass arrests, surveillance and excessive force against Palestinian Israelis, alongside permissiveness of Jewish violence. The Israeli state would indeed have shot in the street any Palestinian Israeli who posed any threat to the status quo.
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ScientistCV • 21:51
They ciuld have fought more, worked harder ? As the girl in rhe miniskirt to avoid getting raped ? Strange argument, the victim is responsable.
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FBECV • 23:42
They would have been killed. For all of Israel's history & prior to its formation, it has been killing Palestinians and stealing their land. Why are they to blame for Israel's criminal behavior? In the strikes of 2018, IDF snipers picked off protesters like sitting ducks.
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GodfreyFBE • 01:11
Don't forget the skunk trucks where peaceful,Palestinian protestors were smothered in Israeli shit. Israel never allowed nonviolent protest because it was too dangerous to their propaganda image. Please remember Israeli IDF officers and Rabbis called even little children subhuman, animals, cockroaches, former Nazi labels. The notorious claims by a Rabbi that a 1,000 Palestinians were not worth a Jewish fingern
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1Ta Ma • 06:53
Thank you for this piece.
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