WhatsappChannel 13 in Israel recently aired a report portraying Bedouin being pushed off their land due to so-called “settler violence,” presented by journalist Baruchi Kara alongside several former senior IDF generals and intelligence chiefs, including Tamir Pardo.
But this was not journalism. It is narrative warfare against the Jewish people. And it is dangerous.
Because beneath the reporting about “settler violence” and Bedouin encampments, lies a far more consequential story, one that the media is not telling.
When I served in the IDF in the 1990s, I spent significant time on Golani bases in the Jordan Valley. I know that terrain intimately, running up and down those hills for miles. And I can state clearly: the hills were empty. Not “Bedouin-owned.” No Bedouin encampments at all. Empty.
Over the years, that reality changed, not organically, not legally, but systematically. One hill at a time was seized and settled by Bedouin encampments. This was not random. It was part of a strategic plan driven by the Palestinian Authority, with backing, funding, and political cover from the European Union and European governments.
The objective is simple: to create irreversible facts on the ground that will carve out a de facto Palestinian state deep inside Israel’s strategic depth, by encouraging Bedouin families to grab land all across the empty areas.
While the channel 13 media report is framing this as a humanitarian story, it is not. It is a geopolitical operation to steal Israeli land and de-facto create a Palestinian State.
And that brings us to the so-called “hilltop youth.”
They are not the story being told. They are the response.
These young Jews are moving onto strategic areas, land that is Israeli state land, illegally grabbed by Bedouin as part of the EU supported Palestinian Authority plan to take away our land, and they are reestablishing a Jewish presence there. Not as an act of rebellion, but as an act of defense.
But here is the uncomfortable truth that the report completely ignores:
These young people are stepping in because the system failed.
Because when the very same senior officials featured in that program were in positions of authority, in the military, in intelligence, in decision-making roles, they did nothing to stop the illegal seizure of land by the Palestinian Authority and its European backers. They watched it happen. They allowed it to develop. And over time, those illegal outposts became entrenched “facts on the ground.”
And now, after years of inaction that enabled this strategic erosion, they turn around and condemn the only people actively pushing back.
A new generation of young Jews, forged in the aftermath of October 7th and deeply disillusioned by the failures of the very security and legal systems meant to protect them, refuses to sit quietly. They are stepping in to do what should have been done all along: to defend the land and, by extension, the Jewish people.
And here’s the part that truly exposes the narrative.
In the report itself, the journalist criticizes Smotrich and the government for providing funding and rangers to these hilltop youth.
Why?
Because even the government understands what others refuse to admit: these young pioneers are operating in the very space where senior security officials and legal authorities have chosen not to act.
The report, and words of the former senior defense officials, is not just hypocrisy. It is an abdication of responsibility.
Because what we are seeing today is the natural consequence of that failure: when the state does not protect its own strategic land, individuals step in to do what the system would not.
And whether one is comfortable with that reality or not, it does not change the core issue: control of land in Judea and Samaria is not theoretical. It is the front line of Israel’s long-term security.
Anyone who understands geography, security doctrine, and the lessons of October 7th knows the truth: a hostile entity taking over Judea and Samaria, and in extension is a direct threat to every Israeli, from the Jordan Valley to Tel Aviv, from the Negev to the Galilee.
Yet in that televised tour, something deeply revealing happened.
These former heads of Israel’s military and intelligence establishment, the very people entrusted with protecting the state and its citizens, spoke about these areas as if they naturally belong to the Bedouin. As if those of us who ran up and down those barren hills in the Jordan Valley don’t remember that just 30 years ago there were no Bedouin encampments on those hills. As if the past decades of illegal Bedouin encroachment never happened. As if the coordinated effort by the Palestinian Authority and Europe to reshape the map of Judea and Samaria simply does not exist.
Even more disturbing, they framed fellow Jews, the hilltop youth, as the threat.
They warned that the “next October 7th” could come because of them.
Think about that.
Instead of identifying the jihadi forces that openly seek Israel’s destruction, instead of confronting the strategic land grab that endangers our borders and our future, these former Israeli security officials turn against fellow Jews. They have chosen to see the Jews rebuilding presence on critical land as the problem.
This is not just a disagreement. This is a collapse of strategic clarity.
It is the same conceptual failure we have seen before, the belief that if we reinterpret reality, if we ignore the deeper threat, we can manage the conflict without confronting it.
Reality doesn’t work that way.
And the gap is now undeniable.
Between a generation still trapped in failed conceptions, and a generation that understands we have no other land.
Between those who have forgotten who the enemy is, and those who refuse to make that mistake again.
Between those who dream of Israel becoming “like all other nations,” and those who understand the unique responsibility of Jewish sovereignty in our homeland.
And this is why every Israeli must understand what is really at stake.
When the hilltop youth are demonized, people establishing a Jewish presence on lands being taken illegally by our enemies, with their own hands, continuing the legacy of Jewish pioneers, it is not just a personal attack.
It is an attack on the very people standing on the front lines of Israel’s future, protecting every single Israeli citizen.
When the hilltop pioneers are targeted, it is not about law enforcement. It is about delegitimizing the only forces actively countering a strategic land grab that threatens all of us.
Weakening them does not strengthen Israel.
It weakens the backbone of our national resilience.
We will not apologize.
Not for building.
Not for holding onto our ancestral land.
Not for pushing off squatters.
Not for recognizing the reality that others chose to ignore when they had the power to act.
We will continue to build.
We will continue to hold the land.
And we will continue to defend the future of the Jewish people, with clarity, with strength, and without illusions.
Thank God we have a new generation. Still not enough in senior positions within the IDF, intelligence services or legal system, but the tide is turning.
Strengthen your faith. We still have plenty of ups and downs ahead, but the trajectory is clear.
Am Yisrael!!!
