A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Baby Cassie to find new family. (Supplied: Facebook/Rockhampton Zoo)
In short:
Zookeepers had to hand-rear baby Cassie after the chimpanzee was dropped by its mother hours after birth, breaking its leg.
Once healed, attempts to reunite the primate with its mother and aunt resulted in aggression.
What's next?
The zoo said it's in Cassie's best interest to send the primate elsewhere as it needs to grow up around fellow chimps.
A central Queensland zoo will send a baby chimpanzee elsewhere after a failed reunion with its mother.
Female chimp Sile gave birth to Cassie at the Rockhampton Zoo in June, but dropped the baby when it was hours old, breaking its leg.
Zookeepers then had to care for Cassie round the clock as they tried to mimic all interactions as closely as they could to typical chimpanzee behaviour.
Keepers have had to work around the clock caring for Cassie, trying to mimic interactions with chimp behaviour. (ABC Capricornia: Katrina Beavan)
After healing, staff attempted to re-introduce Cassie to mother Sile as well as another female adult in the troop, Mary.
But it was unsuccessful, with both females showing aggression towards Cassie, who was left with bruising and bite marks.
At the time the zoo said it would discuss possible next steps with experts in the field.
Cassie had positive reactions to the troop through mesh screens before the unsuccessful reunion. (Supplied: Rockhampton Regional Council)
"From this we've had a lot of discussions within our team and with specialists from around Australasia and Europe," Ms Thrower said.
"We've concluded that Cassie needs to find a new troop to go to and become a part of."
Ms Thrower said it was very important for the young chimp's development to be around others of its kind as soon as possible.
"Staying in human care she's going to grow up believing she's a human, which will only cause bigger issues down the line when she does eventually go in with chimps," she said.
"The sooner we can get this done the better."
She conceded that the Rockhampton community already "loved" Cassie and would like to see the chimp grow up locally.
"But we need to do what's best for her welfare, and to put her back in with our troop she's only going to get hurt."
Rockhampton Zoo curator Blair Chapman nursing baby Cassie, who is receiving 24/7 care from keepers. (Supplied: Rockhampton Regional Council)
Where to next?
Ms Thrower said Cassie's development was going well and the chimp was hitting all the appropriate milestones.
The zoo did not confirm which facility Cassie would be sent to as it was "still working through options" and would update the community as soon as the final decision was made.
Cassie is the offspring of 19-year-old alpha female Sile and the troop’s alpha male, Alon. (Supplied: Rockhampton Regional Council)
The zoo is owned and funded by the Rockhampton Regional Council which has not yet responded to the ABC about the costs incurred with hand-rearing Cassie.
The young chimp was named after chimpanzee Cassius, a resident at the Rockhampton Zoo for almost 40 years, and a local woman named Cassie who donated colostrum during the initial weeks after the primate's birth.
Cassie will leave behind a seven-chimp troop with four males aged from six to 30 years old and three females aged between eight and 23.
Officials in Indonesia say El Niño conditions have raised the risk of more fires during the peak dry season. (AP: East Java Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency)
In short:
The El Niño weather phenomenon is set to intensify further into 2027 and could be the strongest ever, says the World Meteorological Organization.
The UN climate agency says this raises risks of extreme weather into next year.
What's next?
The WMO says it is highly likely that El Niño will continue through to February.
El Niño could be the strongest since records began four decades ago, the United Nations' climate agency has warned, with the UN chief warning the world is in the "danger zone of extreme weather".
The naturally occurring weather phenomenon is set to become "very strong" in the months ahead and is near certain to persist through to February, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday.
El Niño warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds, pressure and rainfall patterns.
A view of cracked ground at a dam in Zimbabwe during an El Niño-induced drought, 2024. (Reuters: Philimon Bulawayo)
"If this trajectory continues, it may be stronger than anything since our monitoring began — so literally off the charts we have used for the past four decades," WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters in Geneva.
El Niño will peak towards the end of this year — though its knock-on impacts for the climate will continue well into 2027, said the WMO.
Heat in the oceans releases more slowly into the atmosphere, pushing up global temperatures the following year.
The powerful 2023-24 El Niño contributed to 2024 being the warmest year on record, and "we should not be surprised if this record is broken", Ms Saulo added.
"El Niño is firmly established and will intensify into a very strong event in the coming months, with big impacts on rainfall and temperature patterns and associated risks of floods, drought and extreme heat," the WMO said.
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon and is not caused by climate change.
Record rainfall linked to El Niño caused flooding in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, 2024. (Reuters: Amanda Perobelli)
But scientists expect it will exacerbate the heat of a planet already warming from burning fossil fuels, while amping up weather extremes.
"El Niño is being supersized before our eyes," said UN chief Antonio Guterres.
"The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, and those waters are heating up. Sea surface temperatures are rising, temperatures keep climbing, and the world is in the danger zone of extreme weather," he said.
'Massive blow' to economies
"This exceptional El Niño … has the potential to deliver a massive blow to communities and economies across the world", said Ms Saulo.
"We are already seeing disruption and devastation from droughts and floods, and we expect these impacts to increase as El Niño intensifies."
She put disaster management authorities and climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, health, energy and water on notice, saying there was "no time to lose" in getting ready.
El Niño typically takes place every two to seven years and lasts about nine to 12 months.
Conditions oscillate between El Niño and its opposite La Niña, with neutral conditions in between.
"Fuelled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific, El Niño is expected to strengthen further during the coming months to a very strong intensity," the WMO said.
The UN agency classifies El Niño events as weak, moderate, strong or very strong, meaning it is set to reach the highest level out of four.
The WMO said there was an "exceptionally high likelihood of nearly 100 per cent" that El Niño will continue through to February.
Pacific Ocean heating up
El Niño can reshape weather and climate patterns thousands of kilometres away from the tropical Pacific.
Every El Niño is different, but major events often follow familiar patterns.
This includes drought across parts of the Amazon, Indonesia and Australia, disrupted monsoons in India, and shifting rainfall throughout the tropics.
El Niño is often associated with drought across Australia due to its influence on winter and spring rainfall. (ABC News: Jess Davis)
For September-November, WMO forecasts indicate an increased likelihood of above-normal temperatures "across almost all land areas", alongside rainfall patterns showing a "pronounced and classic atmospheric response to the strong Pacific El Niño", the UN's weather and climate agency said.
The index, which measures sea surface temperature anomalies in the central eastern equatorial Pacific, has strengthened from an average 1.5C above normal between May and July.
Weekly values between late July and mid-August ranged from around 2.2C to 2.6C above average, indicating continued El Niño intensification.
In some areas, subsurface ocean temperatures were more than 8C above average during July and early August.
Skiing in early September is restricted to small areas of artificial snow like the Front Valley section of Perisher. (Supplied: Telemark Phat)
Australian ski resorts are winding up operations early in 2026 after the warmest winter on record.
Along with mild temperatures, winter also brought frequent rain to the high country, preventing a seasonal snowpack from establishing across lower alpine elevations.
This year also marks three very lean years in the past four, continuing the long-term decline in snowfall across the Australian Alps, which is proving to be one of the most tangible signs of our warming climate.
Ski fields above freezing most of winter
This year's snow season was a challenge from the start.
June was unseasonably warm and wet, and when it was not raining, it was mostly too warm for snowmaking at ski resorts.
Heavy rain in late August caused a major melting event and a swelling of the Perisher Creek. (Supplied: SMSkier)
A remarkable statistic for early winter was the Perisher Valley weather station measured 301 millimetres of precipitation from June 1 to July 2, of which only 25mm fell at a temperature below 0 degrees Celsius.
A modest dump of snow finally arrived in July, but the month was generally mild and occasionally rainy; although a snow base developed on higher slopes, a full cover across lower alpine regions never formed.
Last month brought no relief, with further rain and above-average temperatures — during the final days of the month, alpine maximums even climbed above 10C, including a new all-time winter record of 14.4C at Perisher on Saturday, August 29.
Three warmer-than-normal months meant the average winter temperatures across the high country were easily the highest on record, and by a fair margin.
The longest-running BOM station in the Australian alpine region is Cabramurra, where this winter's mean of 4.0C was well above the long-term average of 1.8C and nearly half a degree above the previous record in 2023.
Across the border, the Mount Buller station has been operational since 1985 and also exceeded the previous record by nearly half a degree, coming in at 1.9C versus a long-term average of 0.1C.
Snow depth in 2026 is historically low
In a typical year, snow accumulates through winter and peaks in August or early September.
However, this year, discounting the improbable arrival of a major polar storm this spring, snow peaked two weeks earlier than average and was at historically low levels, which heavily restricted the amount of open terrain for skiing.
The table below shows peak snow depth in 2026 compared to average; however, there are a few caveats when analysing snow data in Australia*.
What is evident this season is that, for higher elevations, it was the worst season for natural snow since 2006, while for lower regions it was the worst on record.
Despite the setbacks, CEO of Snow Resorts Australia Josh Elliott was confident the industry had the infrastructure to mitigate poor seasons.
"While conditions and available terrain have differed between resorts, continued investment in snowmaking and snow management has meant that skiing, snowboarding and snowplay have been available in NSW, Victoria and the ACT since the June long weekend," he said.
Winter finished with almost no snow cover on many alpine slopes and an early end to the season for most of the terrain. (Supplied: Perisher)
But even extensive snow curation eventually lost out to the elements, and two of the lower resorts, Mount Selwyn and Mount Baw Baw, already shut down operations for the season a fortnight ago.
Mount Hotham is also due for a premature finish this Sunday, and with more heavy rain ahead this weekend, it is hard to see the other major resorts lasting until the traditional closing weekend in early October.
The downhill slide continues
In isolation, a winter without much snow is nothing new in Australia — 1973 and 1982 were both very lean years — but it is the sharp downward trend over recent decades that is concerning.
And unsurprisingly, the marginal lower alpine areas are most vulnerable to a warming climate, since more winter precipitation is now falling as rain, and above-freezing temperatures are melting the snow cover between storms.
Between 1955 and 2000, the peak annual snow depth at Three-Mile Dam, at an elevation of 1,460 metres, averaged 55 centimetres, but during the past 25 years that figure has fallen to 34cm, a reduction of 38 per cent.
A few hundred metres higher, Mount Buller's drop during the corresponding period is 21 per cent, from 117cm to 93cm, while for Spencers Creek at 1,830m, the decline is 13 per cent from 205cm to 178cm.
In other words, the winter snowline is clearly rising, and projections from several studies this century show that by 2050, maximum snow depth at major resorts, relative to the late 20th century, may decline by more than 50 per cent even under a low emissions scenario.
However, Mr Elliott said Australian resorts were leveraging against future climates.
"While those projections may be relevant to understanding changes in the natural alpine environment, they are not forecasts of future skiable terrain, resort operating periods or the visitor experience," he said.
"Snowmaking has been a core component of the Australian snow experience for more than 35 years. New technology, including All-Weather Snowmaking Systems, now allows resorts with these systems to produce snow in ambient temperatures of up to +20C."
*Victorian statistics are sufficiently robust with daily natural snow depth readings taken by resorts; however, Mount Hotham did not report during the COVID-19 winters of 2020 and 2021. In NSW, Perisher and Thredbo quote snow depth data from Snowy Hydro at Spencers Creek, normally measured weekly or fortnightly. Snowy Hydro also takes readings at Deep Creek and Three-Mile Dam, however these datasets suffer from inconsistent measurement intervals, with intervals between readings of up to three weeks.
Two vehicles were hit and reduced to twisted wreckage in Gaza City. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
In short:
Officials in Gaza say Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City have killed at least three Palestinians, including two children.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz says a senior Hamas militant was arrested.
A third child was killed in a separate incident in central Gaza.
At
least three Palestinians have been killed by gunfire and airstrikes in
Gaza City during an Israeli-backed raid, according to Gaza officials.
An
Israeli special force had tried to carry out an operation in Gaza City
before being detected by Hamas and launched heavy airstrikes to cover
their withdrawal, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media
office, Ismail Al-Thawabta said.
Israeli
Defence Minister Israel Katz said a senior Hamas militant had been
arrested with an Israeli security official saying the man was the head
of Hamas' internal security service.
Some
Israeli media reports said the raid may have been carried out by
members of an Israeli-backed militia that operates from
Israeli-controlled areas inside Gaza.
Witnesses
said Israeli warplanes fired at least 12 missiles near the Katiba area
in the west of Gaza City, an area crowded with displaced families.
Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes and gunfire in Gaza City. (Reuters: Ebrahim Hajjaj)
At least three people — two children and a woman — were killed and several others wounded in the bombardment, medics said.
Two vehicles were hit and reduced to twisted wreckage. Another child was killed in Israeli fire in central Gaza, medics said.
In
a statement on Tuesday, local time, the Israeli military said it struck
several targets in the Gaza Strip in order to remove threats to Israeli
security forces.
Mr Katz did not provide details about the arrest operation or identify the Hamas militant.
"This
is our policy: we do not wait for threats, but rather pursue Hamas
terrorists, thwart them, and destroy their terror infrastructure," he
said, speaking from the Netiv HaAsara community near the northern Gaza
border.
In a separate incident,
medics said a girl was killed and two other people were wounded when
Israeli forces operating east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza opened
fire on the area.
Ceasefire has not stopped strikes
A US-backed ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 halted the large-scale fighting that had devastated the enclave, but it has not ended Israeli strikes.
The military says such operations are intended to prevent attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.
Hamas
accuses Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire and undermining
efforts to advance a broader plan by US President Donald Trump to end
the war.
The plan includes further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.
More
than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire
came into force last October, according to Gaza health officials.
The Israeli military says four Israeli soldiers have been killed in militant attacks during the same period.
An IDF strike killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom in 2024. (Supplied)
In short:
World
Central Kitchen's chief José Andrés has hit back at an Israeli
commander who defended the decision to strike a convoy that killed
Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom.
He
released the video after an ABC interview with Israeli colonel Nochi
Mendel, who ordered the 2024 drone strike that killed Ms Frankcom and
six of her colleagues in Gaza.
What's next?
The WCK chief has also renewed calls for an independent investigation into the April 2024 attack.
World
Central Kitchen has hit back at an Israeli commander who defended the
decision to strike a convoy that killed seven aid workers, including
Australian Zomi Frankcom, saying "we will never accept the death of
humanitarian workers".
In a video on X, the organisation's chief José Andrés said there was "never an excuse for killing" humanitarians.
He released the video in response to an ABC interview with Israeli colonel Nochi Mendel,
who ordered the deadly drone strike on an aid convoy in Gaza that
killed Ms Frankcom, along with six of her colleagues, in April 2024.
Colonel Mendel told the ABC he did not intend to harm aid workers but said, "I'm not sorry for what I did."
He
said he later became aware of what he claims were links between World
Central Kitchen (WCK) and Hamas, describing the organisation as not
"really a neutral organisation" — allegations the WCK calls "false and
outrageous".
A spokesperson for the WCK told the ABC that "this is the latest attempt to shift blame away from the IDF's own actions".
Responding
to Colonel Mendel's interview, which was published last week after
being conducted in October 2025, Mr Andrés refuted the commander's
claims.
"He said we are not a neutral organisation. Really? Let me be very clear to him and to the whole world," he said.
"We are humanitarians."
The organisation also renewed calls for an independent investigation into the April 2024 attack.
José Andrés also renewed calls for an independent investigation into the April 2024 attack. (AP Photo: Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Colonel
Mendel, the commander who ordered the attack, was sacked from his role
as chief of staff for the Israeli military's Nahal infantry brigade.
However,
as part of a wider release of military findings on August 19, the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it would not pursue a criminal
investigation or take additional measures against anyone involved in the
incident.
The Frankcom family was "deeply disappointed" by the decision and called for an independent investigation.
"We
want an independent investigation, with all the video on audio released
in public, so the world can know the truth," Mr Andrés said, echoing Ms
Frankcom's family.
"Because we continue to grieve for our friends. We will never forget them or stop fighting for them."
On
April 1, 2024, the group was travelling in three armoured cars branded
with the WCK logo and driving through part of the Gaza Strip that had
been declared a "humanitarian fire control zone" while coordinating
movements with the IDF.
An
Israeli drone fired three missiles at the convoy — one at each of the
cars in succession — as survivors of the initial strike attempted to
move from one vehicle to another.
In
findings released on August 19 this year, the IDF said it identified a
gunman on a truck in the humanitarian aid convoy and believed the
situation "corresponded to a scenario in which the Hamas terrorist
organisation had taken control of the convoy" and claimed the convoy
deviated from the approved route.
In
response to the findings, WCK said the IDF had full knowledge that the
team was unarmed and was aware of its movement, identities and
activities in advance.
Palestinians look at a vehicle where WCF employees were killed. (Reuters: Ahmed Zakot)
"They knew there was no excuse," Mr Andrés reiterated in the video.
"They knew everything about our operations in Gaza in real time. In fact, there were clear orders not to fire on our people."
At
the time, the IDF said the attack was a grave mistake, arising from
misidentification of the occupants of the convoy as Hamas members.
An
Australian investigation into the Israeli government's response to the
incident, led by retired defence chief Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin
and published August 2, 2024, found the deaths had been the result of
the first vehicle being misidentified due to a number of factors.
They
included the presence of armed security in the vicinity, confirmation
bias and a "failure within the IDF to fully disseminate and/or read the
detailed movement plan approved by the convoy".
As part of the recent release on various IDF investigations into civilian deaths since October 7, the military said it did conclude there were serious failures.
It
said the IDF "mistakenly believed that the vehicles contained Hamas
military operatives and therefore struck the vehicles", but had stopped
short of launching a criminal investigation.
Two IDF commanders — including Colonel Mendel — have already been stripped of their ranks as colonel and major.
A colonel, a major general and a brigadier general have also been reprimanded over the incident.
The ABC's Unravel podcast is investigating the incident, with a report due later this year.
It prompted another round of condemnation from senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself.
He
labelled them a "handful of rioters who are violating the law, causing a
grave injustice to the law-abiding Jewish community, interfering with
the [Israel Defense Forces (IDF)] in carrying out its missions, and
harming Israel's standing in the world".
The
rhetoric is familiar. These are a few bad eggs who are using violence
to enforce their belief the West Bank is their God-given land, and,
officials say, do not represent the wider settler community who share
that creed.
Add to that the argument that this is bad publicity.
If
the issue is indeed what officials call a small number of offenders,
and quite separate from the issue that all Israeli settlement in the
occupied Palestinian territories is considered illegal under
international law, the situation poses an obvious question that no
Israeli official seems able or willing to answer.
Why can't one of the most powerful militaries in the world stop it from happening?
The answer, as it often does, comes down to politics.
Settlers,
many of whom appeared to be young men or teenagers, had besieged homes
on the edge of town, cutting power and water supplies as they tried to
force the residents to leave.
The ABC talks to a villager who is trapped in his West Bank home.
One
of the properties was owned by a Palestinian-American businessman who
demanded intervention from the US embassy. His highly publicised
position likely a factor in the United States ambassador to Israel Mike
Huckabee branding the attackers "Israeli terrorists".
A
fortnight on, and the situation persists. Despite the area being
declared a military zone, settlers continue to harass and attack
Palestinians.
When the
operation began one person had been detained. The ABC asked the IDF and
Israeli police for an update on whether more arrests had been made. The
IDF said it was a police matter, and a police source told the ABC no-one
had been arrested.
On
a Friday in late July, some Israeli settlers were on what they
described as a "hike" from a nearby settlement, without seeking the
approval of the IDF, when they came into contact with a group
Palestinians on the edge of the village.
The Israelis said the Palestinians attacked them, while the Palestinians said the Israelis were the aggressors.
Video
from the scene shows one of the Palestinian men grabbing a settler's
gun and opening fire, then later shows Israeli soldiers opening fire on
the group as the melee continued.
Two settlers and four Palestinians were killed.
What
followed was not only a wave of settler violence, with buildings and
cars firebombed and people attacked, but a massive security crackdown by
Israeli forces.
Between
Friday, when the initial shooting occurred, and Sunday evening, Israeli
police arrested more than 130 people, all Palestinians.
And
that is just one example of the tough approach Israeli forces take
against Palestinians, with arrests happening across the West Bank each
and every day.
'Acts' vs 'terrorism': Politics surrounds violence
The issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is deeply political.
All
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are considered
illegal under international law, but the Israeli government denies their
illegality, and even supports them.
None
of the major Israeli-led parties vying for votes and attention ahead of
the October 27 election want to show weakness on the issue, insisting
they support communities in "Judea and Samaria", the biblical names for
the region.
Settlers set upon the American network NBC in the town of Jalud. (Supplied: NBC News)
The
language politicians use to describe settler violence is also very
different to what they use to describe Palestinian violence in the West
Bank, which is often quickly labelled as "terrorism".
Take,
for example, the prime minister's international spokesperson Doron
Spielman's description of the weekend settler violence as "acts …
committed by a small group of rioters, many from broken homes".
"They
do not represent the law-abiding Jewish community in Judea and Samaria;
on the contrary, they cause that community a grave injustice," he said.
With Qusra
in the spotlight, Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF
would draft a plan to hand over security control for civilian matters in
the West Bank to Israeli police.
Some
in the Israeli media characterised that as an attempt to distance his
ministry, and the military, from the growing mess it was faced with
clearing up.
Concerns were also
raised about the legality of such a move, with reporting suggesting the
military would likely tell Katz that shifting security responsibility
from the military to the police would require formal annexation of
territory.
Commentators also
insisted it played into the hands of Israel's right-wing national
security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has control over the police.
Along with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, he has frequently called to expand settlements.
Despite
critics of Israel's occupation of the West Bank saying its conduct
amounts to de facto annexation, a formal declaration or change in its
legal status has not occurred.
US President Donald Trump, perhaps the only world leader Netanyahu listens to, has previously said he would not allow it.
This
is why the response to settler violence has, thus far, been muted. The
people holding the levers of power in the government to act are not
interested in dealing with it.
Israeli Knesset member posts video of vandalising Martyr's Memorial in West Bank. (Zvi Sukkot via Facebook)
Analysts
also say that within the IDF there is a lack of will to act against the
settlers, either due to general apathy about the situation they're
causing, a fear that soldiers don't have the political backing to tackle
them, or the reality that more and more settlers are now in the ranks
of the Israeli military itself.
The
United Nations has reported a sharp rise in Palestinians attacked by
Israeli settlers, from an average of one Palestinian injured every three
days in 2020 to more than three per day in 2026.
Since
the start of the year, 23 Palestinians have been killed and more than
1,040 injured in settler attacks in the West Bank, the organisation's
latest figures said.
In a
24-hour period from Friday morning to Saturday morning, activists
recorded at least 13 different incidents of settler attacks ranging from
using live fire against Palestinians, stealing livestock, cutting down
fruit trees and setting fire to farmland.
Warnings about settler violence go unheeded
One
Israeli politician, Gilad Kariv of the Democrats, labelled the prime
minister's latest condemnation as "meaningless" and "nothing more than a
fraudulent exercise".
"These rioters are his direct emissaries, Katz's, Smotrich's and Ben-Gvir's," Kariv said.
"This
is why there have been no arrests and no indictments in recent weeks
against the invaders. This is why they are granted de facto immunity by
the IDF and the police.
"Netanyahu's
goal is to cause an explosion in the territories ahead of the
elections. Once again, a bunch of lunatics are betting on the lives of
Israelis and Palestinians for the sake of political survival."
In
late April, the former chief of Israeli spy agency Mossad, Tamir Pardo,
toured some of the West Bank villages and towns being targeted by
settlers. He told the country's Channel 13 what he saw made him "ashamed
to be a Jew".
He warned it was
fuelling such anger among Palestinians that it was "planting the seeds
of the next October 7" attack against Israel.
Both
the IDF and the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet, Israeli media
has reported, have warned the situation in the West Bank is getting out
of control.
For a country that
prides itself on being able to target what it claims are threats against
Israel in places like Gaza and Lebanon, cleaning up what it describes
as its own backyard seems much more difficult; or, more specifically, of
much less interest.
