West Bank unrest sets back Israel's normalization hopes, says Blinken

WASHINGTON — Settler violence in the occupied West Bank is making Israel's goal of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia "a lot tougher, if not impossible," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

The Biden Administration earlier this week objected to an Israeli decision to authorize settlement construction, the latest move by the religious-nationalist coalition despite appeals form Washington not to fan rising tensions.

Asked at a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York whether the dimmed prospect for a Palestinian state — given factors including Israeli settlement expansion and the recent uptick in settler violence in the West Bank — made normalization with Israel's neighbors more difficult, Blinken said this was part of his conversations with Israeli officials.

"We’ve told our friends and allies in Israel that if there's a fire burning in their backyard, it's going to be a lot tougher, if not impossible, to actually both deepen the existing agreements, as well as to expand them to include potentially Saudi Arabia," Blinken said, adding that he spoke about the issue with Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday.

"It's also, at least in our judgment as Israel's closest friend and ally, profoundly not in Israel's interest for this to happen — both because of the added degree of difficulty that this presents for pursuing normalization agreements, or deepening them, but also because of the practical consequences." 

Palestinians have reported hundreds of Israeli settlers attacking their villages in recent days, after gunmen killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement last week.

Turmus Ayya residents told AFP they saw between 200 and 300 Israelis rampaging through their village on Wednesday, attacking residents and damaging dozens of houses and cars.

The Israeli army acknowledged Friday it "failed" to prevent an attack by Jewish settlers on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, during which one villager was killed.

Israel's extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, insisted what was needed in the West Bank was a large-scale "military operation."

"Terrorists eliminated, not one or two, but tens and hundreds, and if necessary even thousands," said Ben-Gvir, himself a settler.