An NBC News crew was beaten with sticks by masked Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Saturday — the latest proof that Americans have no business being entangled in an endless Middle Eastern conflict with no defined U.S. interest and no exit plan.
NBC correspondent Matt Bradley and two crew members were attacked while interviewing a Palestinian woman who said settlers had driven her from her home, according to the network. All three journalists and the woman were treated for injuries. Video shared by NBC shows masked settlers approaching with sticks and beating the crew's vehicles. The Israeli military said it was "aware of reports of Palestinian injuries" but offered no comment on the attack on American journalists.
The assault didn't happen in a vacuum. Settlers descended on the village of Qusra the same day, pelting Palestinians with rocks and trapping residents in their homes, DW.com reported. When residents barricaded themselves inside, settlers followed them in. The IDF eventually arrived — but Palestinians said soldiers fired tear gas into the home, handcuffed and beat trapped residents, and let settlers walk free. The IDF did not comment on those accusations.
This is the same West Bank where settlers seized British activist Finn Joughin, locked him in a shed for half an hour, then handed him to Israeli police, the Chicago Tribune reported. Settlers claim he assaulted a child; his lawyer, Inbar Shaked Vardi, vehemently denies it. Video shows two settlers, one armed, restraining Joughin and marching him away.
Settler violence has been escalating for weeks under a siege in Qusra and neighboring Jalud. Rights groups call it an illegal effort to seize land. Israel's far-right government has encouraged settlement building despite broad international opposition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare condemnation Saturday, calling the attacks "criminal acts of violence" that "harm Israel's standing in the world." Note what's first in his statement: not the victims, but Israel's image.
Even U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has denounced radical settlers as "Israeli terrorists" and warned that those behind the Qusra siege could face American sanctions, DW.com reported. But sanctions after the fact don't protect Americans on the ground now.
Meanwhile, Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei — who has not been seen publicly since U.S. and Israeli strikes killed his father and other senior leaders on Feb. 28 — urged Muslim leaders to "know your real enemy" and confront the U.S. and Israel, according to Iran's IRNA news agency. An Israeli airstrike on central Gaza killed at least two Palestinians, including a three-year-old boy, hospital authorities said.
The Chicago Tribune framed the NBC attack as one item in a roundup of regional developments; DW.com buried the American journalists entirely, focusing instead on Palestinian homes. Neither outlet asked the obvious question: why are American reporters and American taxpayer dollars still propping up this open wound?
Every dollar spent, every American put in harm's way in this region demands a defined U.S. interest, a cost accounting, and an exit. None exist. Bring our people home.
