On Settler Violence

A Goldblog reader writes, in reference to a previous post:

How many murders of Arabs have been committed by Israeli settlers over the past 20 years? I think if you look it up, it's nowhere as many as you seem to think. Your last blog about the settler's son was condescending and smugly self-righteous. Yes, settlers have murdered Arabs in cold blood,  Baruch Goldstein's murderous frenzy being the most famous. But there are more than 300,000 Jews in the West Bank today! And they are, by and large, a more or less normal group of people who are living in the land of their forefathers who neither murder Arabs nor dream of murdering Arabs. You completely misrepresent the situation - and move towards the gutbucket swampland of blood libels - when you claim that Israelis have lost patience with the settler movement because it's murderous. That's simply not true. Many Israelis are fed up with the settlers because of the demographic problem, the pressure of international opinion, and the moral problems that arise from ruling over another people. And judging from the results of the last election, many more Israelis believe that giving up the West Bank means missles over Ben-Gurion Airport.