Last week news broke in the Israeli press of the arrest of an Israeli settler, Haim Pearlman, on charges of murdering 4 Palestinians and committing many other attacks over the past twelve years.  The Pearlman Affair reminds many, of course, of the November 2009 case of Jack Teitel, the American citizen settler accused of a 12-year terror spree that included the murder of at least 2 Palestinians and many other attacks.

The fact that both Pearlman and Teitel are accused of terror sprees that lasted more than a decade has aroused some comment.  The time it took for Israeli authorities to act against the two seems to be in stark contrast to what is seen when an Israeli is murdered by a Palestinian.  For example, today the Shin Bet announced that it had caught the Hamas cell in Hebron responsible for the murder of an Israeli policeman - a murder that took place almost exactly 1 month ago. 

Indeed, the Israeli press has focused a great deal in recent days on the difficulty Israeli officials seem to have in dealing with extremist settler law-breakers, focusing, in particular, on the lengths that extremist settler leaders are going to in order to turn the tables on Israeli intelligence officials in order to embarrass the State of Israel and thwart its efforts to impose any semblance of the rule of law on them.
 

For years settlers have openly fund-raised in the United States - including in synagogues, on booze cruises, in churches and at gala dinners. Over time, millions of dollars have flowed, tax-exempt, to settlers and settlement-related causes, including to support settler extremists in Hebron and East Jerusalem, (cont.)

UPDATE 7/4/10:  The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted this morning to not move the bill (discussed below) to the Knesset for a vote.  This is a positive development, though how positive will depend on what happens during and after the meeting with Obama this Tuesday.  It is not at all certain that Netanyahu's reported pressure on ministers to oppose the bill discloses a real readiness to extend the settlement moratorium (in its current form, not with new loopholes), or whether this is all just political theater (as discussed below).  It also remains to be seen if Bibi's pressure on Knesset members was less about the substance of the bill than the timing -- with Netanyahu trying to avoid sticking a finger in Obama's eye the day before his visit to Washington (similar to what happened this weekend in Jerusalem, where Israel's public security minister intervened to convince settlers to delay - not cancel - plans to throw Palestinians families out of another settler-targeted property in Silwan).   

Maariv is reporting today (July 2) that on Sunday (July 4), the Knesset's Ministerial Committee for Legislation will be taking up a bill that would require the government to bring any decision to freeze settlements - even for a short time - to the Knesset for a vote. (The Jerusalem Post reported the same thing, in less detail, a few days ago).

Given the current political coloration of the Knesset, if this bill is passed into law it will make it nearly impossible for Netanyahu to extend the current settlement moratorium - or impose another one in the future.

Poor Bibi.