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Why Is the Media Blaming Israel for Stopping Terrorist Attacks in the West Bank?
A Palestinian man walks near Israeli military vehicles, during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the West Bank, August 31, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Since Hamas’ brutal October 7 massacre in southern Israel, another war-front has been simmering in the West Bank. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad cells, operating throughout Palestinian towns and cities in these territories, have escalated their terror attacks against Israelis.
Since October 7, more than 4,000 attacks have been reported from the West Bank alone, including an attempted mass-casualty suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month, and a deadly stabbing outside a mall in Gan Yavne.
In response, the IDF has launched numerous counterterrorism operations, targeting heavily-armed terrorists in these areas. The IDF faces the added challenge of uncovering bombs buried beneath roads, using bulldozers to dig under the asphalt.
Israeli military officials have emphasized that these operations are aimed at preventing major terror attacks, with nighttime raids targeting terror leaders, operatives, and bomb labs. However, they acknowledge that while commanders and bomb makers will eventually be replaced, reestablishing bomb-making facilities will take more time for the terrorists.
This volatile situation in the West Bank was the focus of a Sky News segment titled, “Could Israel face a third intifada in the West Bank?” featuring security analyst Michael Clarke.
While Clarke acknowledged the flow of Iranian money and weapons fueling Palestinian terror in the West Bank, unfortunately, parts of his analysis were marked by conjecture and unsubstantiated insinuations.
Suspicion Cast on Israeli Motives
From the outset, Clarke casts doubt on the legitimacy of the IDF’s operations. He acknowledges that the IDF claims its actions are based on intelligence about imminent terrorist attacks, but conspiratorially adds: “Do they really have intelligence of plots that were about to be triggered? Most of us think that’s less likely.”
Who exactly this “most of us” refers to is left unclear. He conveniently ignores the numerous recent terror attacks thwarted by the IDF, such as the one when a would-be suicide bomber en route to Tel Aviv was stopped at a military checkpoint after traveling from his home in Jenin.
Clarke then suggests that Israel’s actions could “trigger a third intifada,” likening the situation to the early 2000s and predicting a “general uprising” because there are “three and a half million people in the West Bank who are very, very angry with Israeli security forces.”
He implies that this anger stems from Israel’s so-called “aggressive” counterterrorism strategy:
The bulldozers that we see are very a symbol of all of this because Israelis claim correctly that Palestinian militants are planting bombs in the roads … but the response of the Israelis to that is to take up the whole road, in a sense, to punish the neighborhood by saying that if you allow these people to plant bombs in your road, you’ll lose the road, and that’s a very aggressive counterterrorist technique.
First, and this shouldn’t need to be stated repeatedly, the argument that Israel’s defensive actions are “triggering” further violence is absurd. It implies that Israel should allow its civilians to be murdered in the streets because preventing those deaths might provoke the attackers even more.
Second, the violence Clarke refers to during the Second Intifada was not an “uprising” against military forces or the Israeli presence in the West Bank. These were campaigns of terror targeting civilians inside Israel.
The Dolphinarium discotheque massacre, the Sbarro pizza bombing, and countless shootings and stabbings weren’t acts of resistance against soldiers or “the occupation.” They were cold-blooded attacks on ordinary people.
Third, Clarke’s claim that the IDF uses bulldozers to “punish” Palestinians ignores the plain reality. Bulldozers are essential for uncovering bombs buried beneath roads, preventing IDF soldiers from being blown up.
In the end, Clarke’s analysis — presented by Sky News as expert opinion and left unchallenged — follows a familiar pattern, the eternal paradigm the media refuses to abandon. Even as the attackers, Palestinians are paradoxically framed as victims, while Israel is cast as the provocateur of their “justifiable” anger.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Why Is the Media Blaming Israel for Stopping Terrorist Attacks in the West Bank? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.