US Teens Join Hardline Israeli Settlers

Young Americans are joining a movement of hardline Jewish settlers who vow to battle both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants to protect West Bank settlements, Matt McAllester writes in Details. Tired of pleading and rock-throwing, they say they plan to fight fire with fire, shooting at Israeli troops, if necessary, and bombing Palestinians. "If they use violence, then we're justified doing the same," says a 21-year-old Brooklynite. "A lot of kids have got no authority, just them and God out there on the hills," says an older settler.

"I very much believe I'm a threat to my own government," says a 15-year-old Israeli who grew up in New Rochelle, New York, now in a militant group called Hilltop Youth.  "There will be no giving up."  Others advocate destroying the mosque on the Temple Mount to spark an all-out Arab-Israeli war, which would no doubt draw in US forces. Quips one settler: "How does it feel to meet a Jewish terrorist?" (More Arab Israeli conflict stories.)