The rise in settler violence against Palestinians within the West Bank over the past 12 months is unprecedented. Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 and the beginning of the war, there have been greater than 1,000 attacks, in line with a brand new report by the International Crisis Group.

The thorn that sparked international concernis usually attributed to the liberal policies of the right-wing Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a UN investigationAlmost half of all settler attacks documented in October 2023 were carried out in cooperation with or within the presence of Israeli forces.

I studied Jewish violent extremism for greater than 20 yearsI’d argue that these developments are the results of an extended process that goes hand in hand with the erosion of Israel's democratic foundations – that the seeds were planted long before Netanyahu got here to power.

Since the late Nineteen Seventies, the long run of Israeli settlements within the West Bank has been probably the most contentious debate within the country. But the once marginal settler movement has now turn out to be arguably probably the most influential actor in Israeli politics.

Ideological origins

In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel took over the West Bank, then ruled by Jordan, against its predominantly Arab neighbors.

Israel then imposed martial law within the region, but Jewish settlement within the occupied territory Construction began immediately afterwards. The first settlements were built illegally and were allowed to stay temporarily. Finally, after the right-wing Likud party got here to power in 1977, the settlements were acquired legal status and their numbers increased rapidly. However, most countries consider them a violation of international law.

The first settler groups, and still nearly all of them, are a part of the larger religious Zionist movement, which seeks to mix devotion to a Jewish nation-state with religious orthodoxy. These Israelis view the emergence of the Zionist movement, the establishment of the State of Israel and its subsequent military victories as Phases of a holy redemptionwhich is able to end with the arrival of the Messiah and the establishment of a Jewish kingdom.

Many imagine that this process might be accelerated by restoring a Jewish presence within the West Bank, which was a part of the biblical kingdoms of Judea and Israel.

In 1989, the settlers within the West Bank formed lower than 2% of the entire population of Israel. Today, They account for nearly 6%although the country's population has doubled.

About 150 settlements are scattered throughout the West Bank, along with unauthorized outposts – Undermining the potential of a viable Palestinian state with an undivided, contiguous territory. As the federal government intensified its efforts to encourage settlement through various subsidies and the event of infrastructure, an increasing number of Israelis moved to the West Bank. to enhance their quality of life and for financial reasons and never ideological in nature.

Gain influence

Traditionally, settlers had only limited representation within the Israeli parliament, but this modified because of a mixture of strategies.

Historically, nearly all of the secular Israeli public has been unwilling to support Israel's control of the West Bank for religious reasons. The position of the left is that settlements an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians and are morally problematic.

To gain support, the settler movement adopted a complementary narrative that focused on the Contribution to national securityActivists emphasized the role of the settlements as a buffer zone between the Palestinian population living under occupation and the major Israeli population centers. Today almost half of Jewish Israelis imagine that they contribute to strengthening national security.

In addition, the movement compared From the settlers within the West Bank to the Zionist pioneers who got here to Palestine within the early twentieth century and founded modern Israel – although lots of these original Zionists were strictly secular. Therefore, the settlers legitimized their cause by portraying themselves as followers of Israel's founding fathers.

At the identical time, the settlers gained power in influential Israeli institutions, including the military. Today settlers hold distinguished positions in the military leadershipwhich could partly explain the usually weak response on the illegal activities of the settlers.

The political prestige of the settlers also increased attributable to their ability to achieve positions inside the federal government. They did this by utilizing sympathetic ministers, by utilizing party primaries to push through appointments, and by winning over existing incumbents to their cause. As right-wing governments became more the norm, became cabinet members.

A typical example is Uri Ariel. After heading the Yesha Council – a forum of mayors of the West Bank settlements – Ariel became Minister of Construction and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Resignation in 2019He promoted the expansion of settlements in addition to initiatives that specifically served the region's Jewish population, reminiscent of roads, tourist attractions and industry.

Legitimization of violence

Over the last decade, a militant current throughout the settler movement has gained increasing popularity.

Known as “Hardalim” – a mixture of the words “ultra-Orthodox” and “nationalist” in Hebrew – this group represents a more Orthodox religious lifestyle. The followers are less committed to Israel’s liberal and democratic traditions, Prioritization of non secular and nationalist values.

In addition, the leaders the followers of Kahanisma racist ideology propagated by Rabbi Meir Kahane within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties. Kahane suggested extreme measures the promotion of Jewish dominance in Israel and the West Bank, for instance through demands for the expulsion of all Arabs from the country or the prohibition of marriage between Jews and Muslims.

Kahane’s followers also justified violence against Palestiniansand teaches that harm done to a Jew is a desecration of God's name and should be avenged.

Today, some settler leaders – including former and current members of parliament reminiscent of Michael Ben-Ari And Zvi Sukkot – have also promoted Support for extreme politics to make sure Israel’s continued control and eventual annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These include Population transfer – a type of ethnic cleansing – and mass punishment of the Palestinian communities.

Final victory

After the 2022 elections, Prime Minister Netanyahu included extremist settler leaders in his cabinet, which for a lot of settlers was an indication that violent and illegal acts against Palestinians be considered legitimate.

Moreover, the appointments have further politicized the federal government bureaucracy. The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir – a former member of the Kahanist movement – ​​has the police reorganizedwith aggressive measures against Palestinians And Protesters against Netanyahu's government.

Bezalel Smotrich, the political leader of the Hardali branch of the settler movement, is now finance minister. Smotrich has campaigned for allocate more funds to settlementsApprove extensions and Legalization of unauthorized outposts.

Both ministers and their parties put pressure on the federal government, Escalation of the military campaign within the Gaza Strip. In the meantime they’ve expanded Restrictions for Palestinians within the West Banklike for instance Restriction of permits to work in Israel and increasingly Restricted movement – and shows how far Israel must go to revive its democratic ethos.

Few constitutional principles are more familiar to the common American than the separation of church and state.

According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of adults agree that Religion needs to be separated from government policyOf course, support varies depending on political or religious affiliation – among the many Democrats Supporting the principle in much larger numbers – and depending on the problem, corresponding to prayers in public schools or the erection of the Ten Commandments monuments. Yet only 19% of Americans think the United States should abandon the principle of separation of church and state.

However, criticism appears to be increasing, especially amongst politically and religiously conservativeAnd this criticism comes from the very top.

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson noticed in 2023 that “the separation of church and state is a misnomer … it comes from a phrase in a letter that [Thomas] Jefferson wrote, “It is not in the Constitution. And what he meant by that was that they did not want the government to interfere with the church – not that they did not want principles of faith to influence our public life.”

As a scholar of American legal and spiritual historyI have written extensively in regards to the development of non secular freedom within the USA and the origins of the separation of church and state.

Two of the Founding Fathers have shaped American views on these issues greater than another: Jefferson and James Madison. But their views have also develop into a focus of controversy because the “wall” between church and state is put to the test.

My next bookThe Grand Collaboration attempts to reply several questions: What was Jefferson and Madison's understanding of non secular freedom? And why were they so committed to this principle?

Cornerstones of the law – in Virginia and beyond

Jefferson wrote the Virginia Religious Freedom Act In 1777, essentially the most comprehensive declaration of non secular freedom on the time was passed. The law guaranteed freedom of conscience, protected religious assemblies from government control, prohibited government funding of non secular institutions, and boldly declared that religious opinions were beyond the authority of civil officials.

Just a few years later, Madison turned these ideals into law. His “Memorial and protest against religious judgmentsa protest against a proposal to make use of tax money to support Christian teachers reaffirmed the values ​​of separation of church and state and spiritual equality. It helped defeat the proposal—and set the stage for Virginia to pass Jefferson's bill.

As president, Jefferson wrote a letter to a Baptist association in Connecticut where he immortalized the phrase “a wall of separation between church and state.”

The Bill of Rights comprises two clauses on religion, each in the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law establishing a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”

What needs to be considered a “state religion”, nonetheless, is controversial.

In 1947, the US Supreme Court ruled advocated the separation of church and state as a guideline for the interpretation of the religious clauses, rely largely in regards to the writings and actions of the 2 Virginians. Justice Hugo Black wrote: “In Jefferson's words, the clause against the establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a 'wall of separation between church and state.'”

The duo's documents served as the idea for the legal principle of separation of church and state, and for five many years their credibility in court remained unchallenged.

Shift at SCOTUS

Criticism of the separation of church and state intensified within the Nineteen Eighties. As the religious right became a political force, Commentators argued that the concept was anti-religious and didn’t reflect the prevailing views about church and state on the time of the founders.

In recent many years, such arguments have attracted politicians and lawyers, including members of the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court's previous separatist interpretations of the structure “sometimes bordered on religious hostility.” Legal scholars Philip Hamburger has declared that “the constitutional authority for the separation has no historical basis“ and “should be viewed with suspicion at best.”

Several recent Supreme Court decisions have rejected a separatist approach to church-state affairs. For example, the conservative majority has allowed taxpayer money for use for religious schools that Representation of non secular symbols on government property and spiritual expressions by public school employees.

In a dissenting opinion from 2022Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained that the court had turned the separation of church and state from a “constitutional obligation” right into a “violation of the Constitution.”

The judges’ earlier appeal to Jefferson and Madison has borne the brunt of the criticism that their views on church and state issues didn’t represent their colleagues, or that neither of the 2 men, as portrayed, was in favor of the separation.

Exchange of ideas

To higher understand Jefferson and Madison’s views, I examined lots of the 2,300 letters between the 2 about “Founders online”, a web site of the National Archives. I also checked out correspondence with other acquaintances.

Both founders had day loanswhich implies that they believed in a better being, but thought science and reason were the most effective ways to know religion. They were only nominally Christians, but higher shielded from religious intolerance than other “Dissenters” due to their high social standing and their membership within the Anglican Church.

It is all of the more remarkable that they dedicated their entire lives to promoting religious freedom.

Religious issues were all the time of concern to them. For example, when Madison and Jefferson debated the necessity for a Bill of Rights, freedom of conscience was all the time at the highest of the list. Both believed that the federal government should avoid supporting religion, even when no particular religion was favored. They also insisted that individuals must have broad religious freedom.

These views were clearly pioneers, but other religious rationalists and spiritual dissidents also held a comprehensive understanding of non secular freedom.

Both men were committed to promoting religious freedom because they saw it as closely linked to freedom of inquiry and conscience. “Reason and free inquiry are the only effective remedies against error,” said Jefferson. wrote in 1784. Allowing people to freely investigate ideas “supports true religion,” because “truth can stand on its own.”

Similar, Madison explained “Freedom of conscience is a natural and absolute right.”

In their view, freedom of inquiry was the source of other rights. Freedom of faith, for instance, was a subset of freedom of conscience. And a healthy separation of church and state was the important thing to making sure these freedoms.

“A support”

The letters reveal how Jefferson and Madison complemented and reinforced one another's views on church and state. They also show the close mental and emotional affection the 2 men felt for one another and the way much each valued the opposite's support.

In their last exchanges Before Jefferson's death on July 4, 1826, he pleaded with Madison: “For myself, you have been a support all my life. Take care of me when I am dead, and rest assured that I will leave you my last feelings.”

Madison responded with similar affection: “You cannot look back on the long period of our private friendship and political harmony with more moving memories than I do.”

Jefferson and Madison's 50-year collaboration within the name of non secular freedom and equality is a very important chapter within the founding history of the United States. I consider this legacy mustn’t be dismissed, but remembered and celebrated.

K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil knew his story.

For eleven generations, the dynasty of the Mayan ruler Copan had ruled, a city-state near the present-day border between Honduras and Guatemala. From the fifth century AD to the seventh century AD, scribes painted his ancestral family trees in manuscripts and carved them into stone monuments throughout the town.

Around 650, a special piece of architectural history seems to have caught his eye.

Centuries earlier, village masons built special structures for public sun-viewing ceremonies—ceremonies timed to coincide with the solstice, similar to the one that can happen on June 20, 2024. The construction of such architectural complexes, which archaeologists call “E-groups,” had largely gone out of fashion by K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil's time.

But to appreciate his ambitious plans for his city, he seems to have found inspiration in these astronomical public spaces, as I even have seen in my research on ancient Mayan astronomy in hieroglyphs.

The innovations of K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil are a reminder that science changes through discoveries or inventions – but occasionally also for private or political reasons, especially in precedent days.

Looking on the horizon

E-groups were first inbuilt the Maya region as early as 1000 BC. The site of Ceibal on the banks of the Pasión River in central Guatemala is one such example. There, the inhabitants built a protracted, plastered platform borders the eastern edge of a giant plaza. Three buildings were arranged along a north-south axis on this platform, with roofs high enough to protrude above the rainforest cover.

In the middle of the square, west of the platform, they built a radially symmetrical pyramid. From there, observers could watch the sunrise behind and between the structures on the platform all year long.

At one level, the earliest E-Group complexes served very practical purposes. In Preclassic villages where these complexes were found, similar to Ceibal, several hundred to several thousand people made their living from “milpa” or “slash-and-burn” agriculture. still maintained in pueblos throughout Mesoamerica today. Farmers cut down scrub vegetation after which burn it to fertilize the soil. This requires careful attention to the rainy season, which in precedent days was tracked by the position of the rising sun on the horizon.

However, most sites within the Classic Maya heartland lie in flat, forested landscapes with few notable features on the horizon. To the viewer standing on top of a tall pyramid, all that’s striking is a green sea of ​​flower crowns.

By interrupting the horizon, the eastern structures of the E-Group complexes might be used to mark solar extremes. The sunrise behind the northernmost structure of the eastern platform might be observed on the summer solstice. The sunrise behind the southernmost structure marked the winter solstice. The equinoxes might be marked halfway between them when the sun rose due east.

Scientists are still discussing Key aspects of those complexesbut their religious significance is well documented. Finds of finely crafted jade and ritual ceramics reflect a cosmology based on the 4 cardinal directionswhich can have been coordinated with this 12 months's E-Group division.

Dwindling knowledge

However, the residents of K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil were probably less attuned to direct remark of the sky than their ancestors.

By the seventh century, the political organization of the Maya had modified considerably. Copan now had 25,000 inhabitants.and agricultural technologies also modified to maintain pace. The cities of the classical period practiced several types of intensive agriculture which relied on sophisticated water management strategies and mitigated the necessity to meticulously follow the sun's horizon movement.

E-Group complexes were still installed within the classical era, but were now not aligned with the sunrise and served more political or stylistic purposes than the representation of celestial views.

Such a development, I believe, remains to be relevant today. People listen to the changing seasons and know when the summer solstice occurs because of a calendar app on their phone. But they probably don't remember the science behind it: how the lean of the Earth and its path across the Sun make it appear as if the Sun itself is moving north or south on the eastern horizon.

United through ritual

By the mid-seventh century, K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil had developed ambitious plans for his city – and astronomy offered a strategy to help realize those plans.

He is thought today for his extravagant burial chamberan example of the success he eventually achieved. This tomb is situated in the center of an impressive constructing, in front of which the “Hieroglyphic Staircase“”: a record of the history of his dynasty, which is probably the most extensive single inscriptions in ancient history.

K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil looked for tactics to remodel Copan right into a regional power and sought alliances beyond the local nobility. He turned to the encircling villages.

Over the last century, several scholars, including myself, have studied the astronomical component of his plan. It appears that K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil commissioned a series of stone monuments or “stelae” to be erected throughout the city and within the foothills of the Copan Valley, and followed the sun on the horizon.

Like the E-Group complexes, these monuments involved the general public in observing the sun. Viewed together, the stelae formed a countdown to a very important calendrical event orchestrated by the sun.

In the Twenties, archaeologist Sylvanus Morley discovered that from Stela 12 within the east of the town, one could watch the sunset behind Stela 10 on a hill to the west twice a 12 months. Half a century later Archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni realized that these two sunsets defined 20-day intervals relative to the equinoxes and the zenith passage of the sun, when the shadows of vertical objects disappear. Twenty days is a very important interval within the Mayan calendar and corresponds to the length of a “month” within the solar 12 months.

My own research showed that the dates on several steles also commemorate a few of these 20-day interval events. Moreover, all of them result in a 20-year event called the “Katun End.”

K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil celebrated this katun end and set in motion his plans for regional hegemony in Quirigua. a growing, influential city about 30 miles away. A round altar there bears a picture of him commemorating his arrival. The hieroglyphic text tells us that K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil “danced” at Quirigua, thus sealing an alliance between the 2 cities.

In other words, K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil's “sun steles” did greater than just track the sun. The monuments brought communities together to witness astronomical events and thus share cultural and spiritual experiences across generations.

Collectively appreciating the natural cycles that make life on Earth possible is something that, I hope, won’t ever exit of fashion.