As UK sanctions beckon, IDF West Bank chief Bluth tries upping law enforcement

A video clip of a speech by IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, responsible for the West Bank area, was publicly distributed on Thursday, in which he walks a fine line between trying to unify Israel's efforts against Palestinian terror and Jewish extremist violence through positive encouragement, with some needling of some of his co-law enforcement partners to step up their game.

On one hand, Bluth extolled the efforts and cooperation of the police, the Shin Bet, and the local Israeli councils for Judea and Samaria.

On the other hand, he warned in a roundabout way that only if all of these officials do their jobs properly will terror and violence be stopped on both sides of the conflict, whether Palestinian or Jewish.

  The sanctions that England and around 10 other Western countries placed on Israel this week relate to a number of issues, some of them in the diplomatic arena and beyond the IDF's arena.

But one of the issues which clearly pushed these countries - regardless of Israel's criticism of the move itself - to take the actions they took related to Israel and the IDF's own admission of failing to sufficiently rein in Jewish extremist violence in the West Bank.

Bluth himself has made numerous speeches in which he has requested or demanded stronger efforts from the police, the Shin Bet, and local officials, as well as from the security cabinet and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In this specific speech, Bluth said, "When there is strong cooperation between [law enforcement] organizations... not just generic cooperation, or based on [mere] interests, but good cooperation, like there is today between the Central Command, the Shin Bet, the Border Police, the general police, from top to bottom, positive interorganizational cooperation enables the thwarting of terror of all kinds, sovereignty, enforcement of the rule of law, and public order."

But then he added, "This is when there is cooperation. But when things work in isolation or when people just try to deal with things on an ad hoc basis, this creates less effectiveness in the field. I praise the cooperation... and even when there is criticism, it is said only internally," and not to the public.

Bluth attempts to calm concerns of political Right while pushing for more action

With these mixed messages, Bluth seemed to be trying to assuage criticism from his political Right that he has cracked down on Jewish extremists and banged heads with Defense Minister Israel Katz, while also trying to urge the police, the Shin Bet, and local and national political officials to take the Jewish violence against Palestinians problem more seriously during a week when Israel is paying a high cost on the diplomatic field at least partially due to this problem.   

On July 19, Bluth even made a speech talking about the need to increase the use of restraining orders as a tool, and in a not-so-veiled way, complaining about the inability to use administrative detention against violent Jews, which Katz blocked in January 2025.

Whether responding to Bluth or to those supporting the Jewish extremists, Katz's leak to Arutz 7 on July 21 that he would summon the IDF central commander for being too aggressive at a time when Jewish extremist violence is out of control puts the defense minister in a new category.

He also announced he would fire Bluth, but IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, who reminded Katz that firing top IDF officials was solely his decision.

IDF, Shin Bet declare Katz's ending of Jewish administrative detention a failure

The results of Katz's ending of Jewish administrative detention have been declared an unequivocal failure by the vast majority of IDF and Shin Bet officials since 2025, which is not only leading to harm against innocent Palestinians, a problem on its own, but is also undermining Israel's fundamental standing in Europe and even among both US Democrat and Republican circles.

The Trump administration does not care that much about what happens in the West Bank, but has numerous times condemned Israel's slow and limited efforts to restrain Jewish extremist violence, including from top pro-Israel figures like US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.