In the midst of escalating violence in the West Bank by gangs of Israeli settlers against Palestinians, the U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson went to Shiloh, an illegal settlement deep into the West Bank, for a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His comment after the dinner—"Judea and Samaria are the front lines of the state of Israel and must remain an integral part of it”—was taken by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a deliberate endorsement of the Israeli settler violence. (“Judea and Samaria” are Israel’s term for the West Bank.) They stated:
“Mike Johnson’s visit to the settlement ... contradicts the declared U.S. position on the settlements.” They condemned his visit—a first for an elected official—and his “inflammatory statements” on annexing the West Bank. It undermines the “Arab and American efforts to stop the war and the cycle of violence and achieve calm” and it encourages “the crimes of ... settlers….”
Johnson’s dinner in Shiloh was about 4 miles away from where American citizen Saif Musarret was beaten to death by settlers last month. Joining Johnson and Netanyahu was Israel Ganz, the head of the Binyamin Region Council (BRC) and the local Yesha Council. Ganz is the leading local Israeli official protecting the murderers of Saif.
