WhatsappThis perspective does not get said enough…The Hilltop Youth are Heroes
Recent events should give every Jew and Israeli pause. Over Shabbat, terror arson attacks devastated communities in Judea and Samaria. Near Metzad in Gush Etzion, an attack was caught on camera involving an Arab woman. In Chavat Gilad, flames destroyed and severely damaged dozens of homes and structures, forcing families to evacuate mid-Shabbat, and literally destroying a community.
Add to this the theft of hundreds of sheep from Jewish farmers in Samaria, recovered only after the army intervened, along with ongoing incidents of rock-throwing, sniping from illegal structures, and widespread illegal Arab construction pressing up against Jewish communities.
A friend in Efrat had a bullet fired directly into his living room window from a nearby illegally built Arab home.
These are not isolated incidents but part of the daily security challenges faced by Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria, challenges that too often receive limited coverage in mainstream Israeli and Jewish media, as even our own media is part of the problem.
Instead, mainstream coverage often focuses disproportionately on alleged “settler violence,” particularly involving the hilltop youth. While every act of illegal violence deserves condemnation regardless of perpetrator, this selective emphasis distorts the broader picture and undermines public understanding of the threats on the ground.
For years, successive Israeli governments and the IDF have worked to counter terrorism in Judea and Samaria, with nightly operations against high-level threats. Yet “price tag” attacks, arson, rock-throwing on roads, and illegal building continue with limited deterrence. Strict rules of engagement for IDF soldiers and concern over international optics sometimes constrain IDF responses to lower-level but persistent threats that erode daily life and security.
In many reported cases, alleged settler violence or confrontations involving the hilltop youth occur only after Jewish shepherds have been attacked, or after repeated assaults on innocent civilians, including families, women and children, driving on the roads. What the media often labels as aggression is frequently an act of deterrence by young people who refuse to live in fear.
This is where the hilltop youth have stepped forward. These young men and women, sometimes youth as young as 16,17,18 and sometimes young families as well, establish farms and outposts on barren hilltops. They graze livestock across large areas, asserting a Jewish presence on state lands to prevent illegal Arab encroachment. In doing so, they help create facts on the ground that complicate enemy efforts to surround and isolate Jewish communities. Their approach draws from a clear-eyed understanding that, in this conflict, projecting strength and resolve is the only effective deterrent, the only language understood by an Arab Muslim culture of strength. Think about it like this, instead of chasing fame on TikTok, these young Jews choose to become shepherds on remote hilltops dedicating their lives to protecting Jewish communities and securing our God-given, indigenous, ancestral homeland.
The culture of our adversaries rewards perceived weakness and punishes restraint. By living exposed on remote hilltops, tending flocks despite real personal risk, and refusing to cede ground, the hilltop youth send a message of determination: this land is ours, and we will not be driven from it.
Many security experts and local residents credit these pioneering efforts with helping to secure not only local communities but all of Israel, by stopping unauthorized encroachment and thereby preventing the creation of new terror bases closer to major population centers.
Notably, even groups like Peace Now have reported that hundreds of Arab families have vacated illegally built structures throughout Judea & Samaria as a result, an outcome that highlights the effectiveness of on-the-ground presence where formal IDF enforcement has fallen short.
Supporting such initiatives does not mean endorsing every action. It means recognizing their role in the overall defense of Israel and Jewish communities, and the strategic depth they provide against the kind of large-scale infiltration Israel suffered on October 7.
Ignoring or criminalizing these pioneers while illegal building and terror persist risks is an open invitation to our jihadist enemies far greater danger.
Israel’s current leadership under Prime Minister Netanyahu, together with Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, has prioritized a firmer security posture in Judea and Samaria that includes these farms and outposts manned by these heroic hilltop youth. This approach deserves continued support over previous policies perceived as overly conciliatory, which too often failed to deter aggression. And already, Eizenkot, Yair Golan have announced that they will return to those failed policies if they win upcoming elections.
A basic truth too often ignored by our leaders is that the Arab Muslim population in Judea and Samaria is the same jihadist population as the one in Gaza: Surveys done show that 80% of the Arab Muslim population in Judea & Samaria support the Oct. 7th massacre. Kibbutz Be’eri survivor Avida Bechar, whose wife and son were shot and killed in front of his eyes, makes the striking admission that it took the October 7 massacre happening to him personally, by armed terrorists and unarmed civilians of all ages, for him to realize that the Arab Muslims in Judea and Samaria are the same enemy. They view us as enemies to be displaced or eliminated, not as neighbors deserving accommodation.
So long as we refuse to acknowledge this reality, our communities will remain endangered. The hilltop youth understand this truth. They are the unsung heroes of the Jewish people today, acting with strength, purpose, mission, justice, and without fear, precisely the approach needed to deter our adversaries and secure our future.
We cannot rely on the Jewish/Israeli media that consistently highlights bad Jews and good Arabs while ignoring or downplaying the broader reality. That distorted narrative leaves people misinformed about what is actually happening on the ground.
True peace will come only through strength and realism, not wishful thinking. The young people, those hilltop youth, willing to live on the front lines of this struggle deserve our recognition and support. They are modern Jewish heroes.
