On My Mind: A Settler Terrorist, an American Hostage, and Hysteria in New York
A deep dive into the man arrested for clubbing Um Saleh, and more.
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Today’s lineup:
My deep dive into Ariel Dahari—the Israeli man I filmed attacking Um Saleh in Turmus’ayya—who was arrested on Sunday, three weeks later.
Exclusive updates on the case of Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, the American teenager imprisoned in Israel.
A look at the hysterical reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s election.
First, if you missed it: I joined Chapo Trap House to discuss the spiraling violence in the West Bank—violence that reached record levels this October, with the UN reporting more than 260 settler attacks during the olive harvest, an average of eight per day—before moving on to more pressing topics, like settler dating apps and Canary Mission hostage videos.
I also spoke with Chris Hayes on Why Is This Happening, which felt like a win in terms of reaching a more mainstream liberal audience with stories of state-backed settler terrorism. It’s a good one to send to friends or family still clinging to their illusions about Israel.
Arrest of Turmus’ayya Settler Terrorist
On Sunday, Israeli authorities arrested the man they say attacked Um Saleh in Turmus’ayya, on charges of “terror and assault.” His name is Ariel Dahari, a twenty-something from ‘48 Israel—not the West Bank—who has been on the state’s radar for years.
Here’s what I said about a potential arrest last week, before it happened:
Below is a rundown of what I was able to find on Dahari. As you read this, it’s worth remembering that years ago, before settlers rose to the highest levels of government, the Israeli military often found itself chasing them around the hills of the West Bank, frustrated that they were trying to carry out ethnic cleansing on their own terms. Among those being chased were Smotrich and Ben Gvir themselves, back when they were fringe provocateurs rather than government ministers. Their freelance violence created instability the army had to contain, rather than the more orderly, state-sanctioned version of land theft carried out through official settlement building.
Background: Dahari is from Nof Ayalon, a community inside Israel, but he appears to have spent much of his free time in the occupied West Bank, immersing himself in the hilltop youth world and drifting between hardline settlements like Yitzhar and Bat Ayin, both known for extremist violence.
2019–2020: Shin Bet “Jewish terror” case. In late 2018 and early 2019, Dahari (then 18) was arrested alongside other far-right youths in a Shin Bet “Jewish terror” probe, suspected of conspiring to carry out a terror attack, membership in a terror organization, and other racially motivated crimes.
In January 2020, a judge publicly criticized the Shin Bet’s late-night interrogations of Dahari and another suspect, saying they amounted to abuse and violated basic rights, and ordering that the terror suspects be allowed eight consecutive hours of sleep. The case sparked protests from settler activists, who staged mock torture scenes in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and accused the Shin Bet of persecuting Jewish suspects.