Minor news item: USA bans entry to the US of 4 Israelis involved in “settler violence”. Normally, this would not cause me to comment, especially since the 4 individuals named are perpetrators of vigilante justice against residents of an Arab village. But a quick search showed that the only other Israeli ever banned from entry to the US was Nahum Manbar, an arms dealer who supplied chemical weapons components to Iran. Manbar spent 1997 to 2017 in an Israeli prison for this. He still can’t go to the US. But the US southern border is open to thousands of people who don’t have to go through the process of getting a visa.
Other people who have been banned from entry in the past include Nelson Mandela, and current Indian Prime Minister Modi. The ban on Modi was lifted when he was elected. Tariq Ramadan, a Muslim scholar, was once banned for donating money to Hamas. He had to resign from a tenured position as a professor at Notre Dame because he could not enter US. The ban was put in place in 2004 and lifted by an American court in 2009. He is still not allowed entry into Mauretania or Israel.
Banning the 4 Israeli vigilantes looks like a game of trying to appear even-handed in American Middle East policy (not to say that the 4 individuals don’t deserve to be banned. They really are petty criminals). Making the event public, along with pushing for an immediate 2 state solution of the Arab-Israel conflict is just another manifestation of how poorly the US government understands that conflict. There have been no Palestinian-Israeli talks for some time because the only Palestinian political representatives come from parties that ALL call for the replacement of Israel by an Arab (Muslim) state. Any acceptance of a side by side living in peace idea by them is only as a short term solution (primarily in order to get international recognition).
The American military awards a medal for service in the war against terrorism, but the US government is still not willing to invest in any plan that would result in Arab (Palestinian) children learning a curriculum that omits teaching hate of Israel and Jews (i. e. terrorism).
Wetherhorn 