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Violent confrontation between troops and settlers sets off tensions in Netanyahu’s new government
(JTA) — Two extremist ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government lashed out after troops had a violent confrontation with Israeli settlers.
The troops were removing settler protesters from West Bank land where settlers had years ago planted trees. Palestinians in the region claim ownership of the land and the Israeli army’s Civil Administration ordered the trees’ removal several years ago — a decision upheld in 2021 by the Supreme Court, which the government is seeking to disempower.
Border Police troops who arrived Wednesday to carry out the uprooting were met by settler protesters, some of whom tied themselves to the trees. One video shows a protester resisting arrest; the border policemen kick and punch him while he is down. The Times of Israel reported that four border policemen were suspended after the action.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the internal security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, expressed outrage at the confrontation. Smotrich demanded that Netanyahu accelerate a clause in the coalition agreement to give Smotrich control of civilian matters in the West Bank. Smotrich, believing he already had such powers, had planned to allow the settler, who claims to have legally bought the land, to keep the orchard in place.
“Not in our government!” Smotrich said on Twitter. “This can’t continue,” Ben-Gvir said in a video he posted to social media.
At a press conference, he signaled that he was growing frustrated by working with Netanyahu, who suspended the uprooting after the complaints. “We joined the government on the basis of a commitment that it would be a completely right-wing government, and this policy cannot continue,” he said.
Two lawmakers in the far right Religious Zionism bloc led by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir were on the scene and attempted to intervene. Video shows four policemen surrounding one, Limor Son Har-Melech, and not allowing her to advance, but taking care not to touch her. She later accused them of sexual assault. The Border Police denied the claim.
The violence comes a day after another soldier was sentenced to 10 days detention for kicking a Palestinian journalist, an event that also was caught on video.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.