Escalating Violence in West Bank Raises Concerns for Israel's Control.

Israeli ministers and lawmakers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition have rejected the criticism leveled by the military and the defense establishment against the “terrorism” of extremist settlers who have attacked Palestinians in recent days. The heads of the military, the Shin Bet, and the police issued a joint statement on Saturday evening strongly condemning the ongoing settler attacks in the West Bank and branding them “nationalist terrorism in the full sense of the term.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the coalition’s far-right Religious Zionism party, prodded the military and the security forces for a stronger response to Palestinian terrorism, and appeared to suggest that law enforcement takes a heavier hand with settlers compared to other communities.