Masked Israeli settlers beat a 63-year-old American photojournalist for more than ten minutes with clubs, broke her ribs, shattered her hand badly enough to need surgery, and stole her camera, passport, and phone. Mike Huckabee, the hardline pro-Israel US ambassador, called it a "despicable act of terror." Two days later, Donald Trump endorsed the prime minister who called it "alleged."
Ten Minutes of Kicking
According to The Guardian, Heidi Levine, an award-winning photographer who lives in Israel and works for the Washington Post, was attacked last Friday while covering Palestinian farmers trying to harvest their olives in the occupied West Bank. The settlers were masked. They carried clubs and other weapons. They went after the farmers first, and then they went after the woman with the camera.
Levine says the beating lasted more than 10 minutes. "I was attacked, pushed to the ground," she said. "Luckily, I had my flak jacket and helmet, otherwise I probably wouldn't even be here, because they just kept kicking and kicking me."
She is now in a hospital in Petah Tikva recovering from hand surgery, broken ribs, and other injuries. The attack stopped only because her Palestinian colleagues stepped in and pulled her out. Remember that detail when someone tells you the people being terrorized here are the dangerous ones.
Even Huckabee Couldn't Stomach It
Mike Huckabee is not a man who goes looking for fights with settlers. He is a rightwing Trump ally with a long record of hardline pro-Israel rhetoric. So when he took to X on Saturday and called the attack a "despicable act of terror carried out by masked cowards," it landed with some weight.
He noted that Levine is a US citizen and was clearly identifiable as a journalist. He said the embassy has called for a "full investigation, arrest, and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law to whoever participated in this." He called it a "dishonorable act of senseless violence."
Give the man credit. When your own side's most reliable cheerleader is using the word terror, you have a problem that no spokesperson can spin away.
Netanyahu and the Word "Alleged"
Benjamin Netanyahu's response was a masterclass in saying nothing while appearing to say something. He condemned "violence against anyone," which is the kind of sentence a hostage reads off a card. Then he described the attack as "alleged" and said its circumstances remain unclear.
Unclear. A 63-year-old woman is in the hospital with broken ribs and a surgically repaired hand, her passport is gone, and the circumstances are unclear. The American ambassador has a clearer read on it than the prime minister of the country where it happened.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog, whose role is mostly ceremonial, did better. He called Levine in the hospital and said the attack was "outrageous and shocking" and was weighing on his conscience. A ceremonial president showed more spine than the man running the government.
The French Mayor Got Knocked Down Too
The Levine beating was not an isolated bad afternoon. On Saturday, another outbreak of settler violence hit a group of European diplomats and church officials who had joined the olive harvest on land belonging to the Christian town of Taybeh. The group included the French consul general in Jerusalem, his wife, and the Belgian and Polish consuls.
Bernard Baudoux, the mayor of Aulnoye-Aymeries, was wearing his red, white, and blue sash of office and trying to get into a vehicle with diplomatic plates when he was knocked to the ground. A witness said a masked militant shouted "Vive la France!" as he attacked. The archbishop of Cambrai, Vincent Dollmann, and Baudoux's wife were threatened by the group of seven men, some armed with clubs.
"I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government," Baudoux told Agence France-Presse. France's foreign minister called on Israel to "urgently halt criminal violence." The EU demanded accountability. The European Commission's Teresa Ribera posted an interview with Levine from her hospital bed with a four-word caption: "They want no witnesses."
A 3 Percent Conviction Rate and an Election Eight Days Away
Here is the context that matters. Israel votes on October 27, the fight is bitter, and violence is surging while Netanyahu courts his pro-settlement base. The olive harvest keeps getting disrupted. Voters are being shown exactly what the government will tolerate.
And it will tolerate a lot. Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, says roughly 94 percent of investigations into settler violence since 2005 ended without an indictment. Just 3 percent led to full or partial convictions. Three percent. If you ran a bakery with that quality control rate, the health inspector would shut you down and the news would send a crew.
Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu's main rival and a former military chief, called the attacks "Jewish terrorism, under the auspices of the Israeli government." That is not a left-wing activist talking. That is a man who used to run the army.
Trump Picks His Guy
So the stage is set. An American citizen is beaten bloody, the American ambassador calls it terror, European diplomats are getting clubbed, and the Israeli prime minister is calling it alleged. What does the American president do?
On Sunday, Trump officially endorsed Netanyahu for re-election on Truth Social. He called him "a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran." He said Bibi had been "Strong, Brave, and Brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel, itself."
The endorsement did not mention Heidi Levine. It did not mention the settlers. It did not mention the ambassador Trump himself appointed, who had said the opposite of "brilliant" about the situation 24 hours earlier.
The Dingo Take
Mike Huckabee thinks this was terror, Heidi Levine's ribs think it was terror, the EU thinks it needs accountability, and the man the president just endorsed thinks it was alleged. One of these positions is going to win out in the White House, and it's not hard to guess which.
Look at what the Trump administration has done here. It has an ambassador, a true believer in the cause, saying on the record that masked men beating a US citizen is terrorism and that they should be arrested and prosecuted. That is the official American position, stated by the official American envoy. And then the president pivots to a campaign endorsement for the guy whose government sits on the investigations 94 percent of the time. If the ambassador's words meant anything, the endorsement would have come with a condition. It came with a gold star.
Here is the cold math. An American journalist can be kicked half to death for the crime of photographing it, her passport can be stolen so she can't easily leave, and the response from the commander in chief is a love letter to the prime minister who calls it alleged. Settlers watching that learn precisely what they need to know. Palestinian farmers, who got no ambassador tweet and no presidential phone call, learned it a long time ago. The only people who saved Heidi Levine that day were Palestinians. Put that in the endorsement.
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