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Western cartoonists often depict the "settlers" as animals. The main zoomorphic motifs used today for Jewish settlers are spiders, the octopus and the blood-thirsty vampire. The demonization of the “settlers” and the manner in which part of the Israeli society is gloating over their displacement will remain an indelible blot on Jewish history. They want to transform these idealistic citizens' Maginot defense line into their Massada. The "settlers" of Judea and Samaria represent a highly constructive element in the Jewish nation. They serve on the front lines and bore the brunt of Arab terrorism, suffering more casualties than any other...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu faction, said Monday that the attacks against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron, or Yesha) are wrong and hypocritical. "There is no justification, and no excuse can be accepted with regard to hurting IDF soldiers," he said, in reference to the incident a week ago in which Yesha youths allegedly vandalized an IDF base. "Between that and shooting protesters – and it doesn't matter if they are Jewish or not – there is a great difference." "In the media frenzy regarding the outposts, too, the media is not...

Even the far left B'Tselem organization criticized the extremist comments made by Labor MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who suggestied that IDF soldiers “shoot settlers” who clash with them when security forces try to demolish homes in Judea and Samaria. Some of the radical left applauded his remarks. The B'Tselem group, known chiefly for its advocacy for Arabs in disputes with the IDF and over Jewish property rights in Judea and Samaria, condemned the idea, saying that shooting live ammunition at Jewish protesters was “an unacceptable method of dealing with civilian violence by Jewish residents” of Judea and Samaria. In a statement,...

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies) - Some 30 Jewish settlers broke into a Christian baptismal site late Monday in a closed military zone along the Jordanian-Israeli border to stage a protest, Agence France-Presse reported. The Associated Press reported that the radical settlers cut a fence to enter the closed military zone along the border with Jordan on Monday night, quoting security officials. AP said they took over an abandoned church on the Jordan River before Israeli security forces removed them and arrested the 17 people involved, quoting officials. Jordanian officials said the Israelis did not cross the border into Jordan. On Tuesday,...

"We were certain that the evacuation had begun. People were frustrated, helpless. They hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles, and suddenly the brigade commander's vehicle arrived. A number of youngsters who don't even live here opened the door and threw a cinderblock inside." This is how one of the rightists who took part in the riots near the Ramat Gilad outpost in the West Bank overnight Tuesday described the mayhem. Speaking to Ynet Tuesday night, the right-wing activist said hundreds of youngsters and dozens of adults from all over the country travelled to the area ahead of the outpost's possible evacuation....

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed senior security officials to prepare an emergency plan to deal with settler violence against the IDF during an 'emergency session' of the cabinet on Tuesday. The meeting was held the morning after a night raid by scores of angry youth on an IDF base in Samaria that resulted in clashes with soldiers and damage to IDF vehicles. Police reinforcements were required to chase the youth from the base. “No one can break the law. No one can raise a hand against the IDF or the police," Netanyahu said. "This is the foundation of democracy. Land...

On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation declaring Thursday, November 26 of that year as a national day of Thanksgiving and prayer. Various states continued to hold their own Thanksgiving celebrations on various fall dates until President Lincoln standardized it as the fourth Thursday in November (with one brief hiccup during the days of FDR, when he moved it up a week and then changed it back)… but it is good to consider that the Thanksgiving tradition that began unofficially with the earliest colonists – at St. Augustine, at Charles City County, at Plymouth – has been...

ELAZAR, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces are seeking to prevent bloodshed when Palestinians march in support of a statehood drive this month, but they are preparing for worst-case scenarios, even authorizing West Bank settlers to shoot at Palestinians who approach their communities. Palestinians say the rallies will be peaceful — a view shared by Israel's own security assessments — and will steer clear of any settlements. Yet, the combustible atmosphere and the long and deadly history of Israeli-Palestinian violence are raising the specter that events might spin out of control. For the Palestinians, the mass marches are intended to...

The IDF has conducted detailed work to determine a “red line” for each settlement in the West Bank, which will determine when soldiers will be ordered to shoot at the feet of Palestinian protesters if the line is crossed. It is also arming settlers with tear gas and stun grenades as part of the defense operation. The IDF is currently in the process of finalizing its preparations for Operation Summer Seeds, whose purpose is to ready the army for September and the possibility of confrontations with Palestinians following the expected vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at the UN General...

Sunday’s Cabinet decision to strip Defense Minister Ehud Barak of some aspects of his unilateral authority regarding Jewish neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria is gratifying for the Land of Israel-loyal public. The Cabinet decided to transfer responsibility for the World Zionist Organization Rural Settlement Division from the Agriculture Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office. Specifically, some issues that until now needed to be approved by the Defense Minister will now merely be decided "in coordination with the Defense Minister." Judea and Samaria (Yesha) have not been annexed to Israel, and are still under military control – meaning that Defense Minister...

Public support for a mass eviction of Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria has dropped nearly 50%, according to a survey conducted by Ariel University Center's Samaria & Jordan Rift Valley R&D center. The survey, an annually published index of public opinion on the settlement enterprise and settlers, was unveiled Thursday at an academic conference hosted at the Ariel campus. According to the data, the percentage of Israelis supporting a massive eviction of settlers in Judea and Samaria as part of a peace treaty has declined to about 14% of the adult Jewish population. This compares to 27% last year....

I have two liberal friends who love Amerindian peoples enough to go to sweat lodge retreats and medicine rituals. They passionately argue on behalf of Native Americans, and are dead set against Western culture. Naturally they are liberals --- and no, they aren't willing to give their homes back to the nearest Native American tribe to make up for our past sins. My friends are "settlers" who live in denial of their own family history. Their self-righteous cant on behalf of Siberian settlers in America -- also known as "Native" Americans -- is strictly limited to loud talk. It's slightly...

After massacre, settlers help bring new life into world: IDF forces and local paramedics helped save the life of a Palestinian woman and her newly born infant Wednesday, at the settlement where Fogel relatives are sitting Shiva for the five Israelis brutally murdered last week. Just as IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz arrived in Neve Tzuf to offer his condolences, a Palestinian cab raced towards the community's entrance. In it, soldiers and paramedics discovered a Palestinian woman in her 20s in advanced stages of labor and facing a life-threatening situation: The umbilical cord was wrapped around the young baby...

Palestinian Authority workers who were hired by the IDF Civil Administration to destroy Jewish homes turned violent when Jews resisted, according to a complaint filed by the Judea and Samaria Human Rights Organization. ') The PA workers were hired to deal with the physical aspects of demolition, primarily taking apart makeshift buildings. However, Human Rights Director Orit Struk said in a letter to Civil Administration head Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai that the workers did not stop there. “An initial investigation based on photos and testimony that have reached us shows that as Ramat Migron was cleared out last week, workers hired...

Somewhere between the Jordanian border and the Green Line, we'll call it Kiryat M'uyamim, night before last, IDF/Police officers rousted out two families at 3 a.m. Their belongings were cast out and tractors and bulldozers destroyed the small hovels that they had built with their own hands. There was no advance warning of this. Neighbors took the unfortunate families in, and the next day everyone went to work. I was in Kiryat M'uyamim last night. At dark, a cement mixer descended the hill towards Kiryat M'uyamim, along with a procession of several small cars. My wife, young son and I...

A Hamas spokesman told Arab language newspaper Al-Hayat that the group intends to continue its attacks on settlers because they are "legitimate targets" on Saturday. Azat al-Ghashek reportedly said that "Zionist settlers" made up an entire army living on occupied land, with a large cache of weapons at their disposal. The spokesman made the comments in an interview with the newspaper, adding that the peace talks launched on Thursday in Washington were nothing but a "media circus."

So, what happened to all of those Scotch-Irish settlers and their descendants? It doesn't seem that large numbers of Americans identify themselves as Scotch-Irish (or Ulster Scots or Scots-Irish). If they do, the Bureau of the Census surveys don't reveal them. The answer is, the descendants of the Scotch-Irish settlers are legion -- but a great many of them call themselves simply "Americans."

Objective articles appeared in two major newspapers this week on Homesh, the Jewish community in Samaria destroyed in 2005, and Joseph’s Tomb near Shechem. The rare coverage without the usual anti-Israeli bias is one among several signs that a four-decade long media attack in Israel is subsiding, albeit slowly.

The Virginia Frontier Culture Museum's 1740s log cabin is displayed as a work in progress. The cabin is a typical peeled-log, saddle-notched settler's cabin of the kind favored by Scotch-Irish moving into the wilds of the Backcountry. The construction was simple and required few tools. The museum's replica is built with one door and no windows -- a common practice which led to laws requiring homesteader's cabins have at least one window.

NERIA, West Bank — In this land of endless history and ethereal beauty, several thousand Jewish settlers gathered on a dozen West Bank hills with makeshift huts and Israeli flags over several days this week to mark an invented anniversary and defy the American president, conveying to his aides visiting Jerusalem what they thought of his demand for a settlement freeze. ... “We are rebuilding the land of Israel,” Rabbi Yigael Shandorfi, leader of a religious academy at the neighboring settlement outpost of Nahliel, said during the ceremony. “Our hope is that there will be roads, electricity and water.” The...