More than 100 Israeli settlers overran an Israeli military escort this week, torching Palestinian homes and forcing soldiers to evacuate the very family the army was court-ordered to protect — and American taxpayers write the checks that fund that military to the tune of billions every year.

Israel's Supreme Court ordered the military to return the al-Tubasi family to their home in the West Bank village of Jalud after settlers forced them out over the summer. Instead of enforcing that order, soldiers retreated. Settlers set both family houses on fire, slashed military vehicle tires, and wounded three Israeli border police officers. The military issued a statement admitting the mission was not completed "due to the violence."

The Philadelphia Inquirer framed the episode as another instance of Israel's government, military, and police "failing to protect Palestinians" — passive language that obscures who is overriding whom. The BBC gave more ground-level detail: settler attacks were coordinated through WhatsApp alerts, and the family found their home destroyed — holes smashed through doors, electrical fittings torn out, a toilet smashed and filled with human waste.

Mahmoud al-Tubasi, 60, told the BBC the experience was "extremely terrifying, beyond words." He said he genuinely expected the mob would kill them. Israeli soldiers used pepper spray to hold settlers back and eventually evacuated the family in an armored vehicle — but, al-Tubasi noted, "they did not take any action against the settlers themselves."

Three people were arrested. Three. Out of more than 100 rioters who overran a military operation, burned houses, and assaulted officers.

The pattern is plain. According to the Inquirer, Palestinians documented Israeli soldiers standing by while settlers entered the al-Tubasi home — even playing ball with them in the yard. Those soldiers were removed from combat duty, per the Supreme Court decision, but no broader accountability followed. Settler violence in the West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began, with at least 23 Palestinians killed in settler-linked clashes so far in 2026, according to the UN humanitarian office.

Even U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called settlers who attack Palestinians "terrorists." Prime Minister Netanyahu's office released a statement condemning the violence — calling the rioters a "handful" — but his government has presided over a system where settlers operate with effective impunity.

Britain, Canada, and France have banned trade with Israeli settlements. Most of the international community considers them illegal. None of that has slowed the attacks.

Here is the question neither outlet asks directly: why does the American taxpayer fund a military that cannot — or will not — enforce its own chain of command against its own citizens? Israel receives roughly $3.8 billion per year in U.S. military assistance, no strings attached. That money competes directly with domestic spending — infrastructure, border security, veterans' care. When an army equipped with American weapons and funded by American workers retreats from its own court orders because settlers refuse to obey, the blank-check arrangement demands justification.

The al-Tubasi family is not back in their home. The settlers who burned it are nearly all free. And the dollars keep flowing.