Rubio says US ‘concerned’ by settler violence, insists Israel will act against it

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington is “concerned” by settler violence in the West Bank but claims that Israel will take action against the largely unchecked, daily phenomenon.

Asked about settler violence while taking questions from reporters in France, Rubio responds, “We’re concerned about that” and notes that US President Donald Trump has previously expressed his opposition last year “against any sort of change in the status quo in the West Bank.”

Trump in September said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank amid efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to take the controversial step.

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now, but that’s a topic we follow very closely,” Rubio says, referring to matters in the West Bank.

The top US diplomat goes on to insist that the Israeli government is taking the issue seriously, noting that in addition to largely attacking Palestinians, the assailants have sometimes targeted Israeli security forces.

“The Israelis themselves have expressed [concern]… You’ve seen that some of these groups and individuals — maybe they’re settlers, maybe they’re just street thugs — have attacked Israeli security forces as well, so I think you’ll see the government there do something about it,” Rubio says.

The last time Netanyahu publicly weighed in on the issue was in December, when he downplayed the problem and characterized the assailants as a “handful of kids.”

His government has meanwhile poured millions of dollars into the outpost enterprise, even as those wildcat communities have been hotbeds for violence against neighboring Palestinians.

As settler violence has escalated, the IDF earlier this week diverted a battalion that was supposed to go to Lebanon, sending it instead to the West Bank.

Nonetheless, settler attacks have continued daily, with the vast majority of them not resulting in arrests.