Radical Settlers Fight Palestine —and Israel

A pipe bomb exploded Wednesday night outside the Jerusalem home of a dovish Israeli professor—where authorities also found fliers promising a $300,000 reward to anyone who killed members of a leftist advocacy group. The attack is the latest sign that right-wing settlers are resorting to extremist tactics to show the Israeli government that they will not be removed from their settlements in the West Bank, the New York Times reports.

A localized war already is raging between Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, but a faction of settlers has begun directing violence toward an Israeli government by which they feel betrayed. One settler was unapologetic about the movement's increased militancy, saying that Israeli Jews “have to decide whether they are on the side of the Torah or the state.” (More settlers stories.)