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3536 - Good Settler, Bad Settler - Update from the West Bank w/ Jasper Nathaniel - The Majority Report with Sam Seder | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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3536 - Good Settler, Bad Settler - Update from the West Bank w/ Jasper Nathaniel

The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Tue Dec 02 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3536 – Good Settler, Bad Settler – Update from the West Bank w/ Jasper Nathaniel
Date: December 2, 2025
Host: Sam Seder
Guest: Jasper Nathaniel, Publisher of Infinite Jazz Substack

Episode Overview

This episode features an in-depth interview with Jasper Nathaniel, who has just returned from a reporting trip to the West Bank. The conversation focuses on settler violence, the dynamics of “good” vs. “bad” settlers, updates on legal proceedings against Israeli settlers, and the struggle to free an American teenager from Israeli military detention. Throughout, the hosts and guest critique both Israeli and U.S. handling of these human rights concerns and reflect on media coverage and political accountability.

Major Segments & Key Insights

1. Tennessee Special Election: National Repercussions

[05:44–15:49]

Discussion on the Tennessee 7th District special election where Democratic candidate Afton Bain is facing Republican Matt Van Epps in a heavily GOP district.
The race is seen as a bellwether for GOP morale and possible further retirements if Democrats perform well.
Notable Clip: Donald Trump’s odd, rambling phone-in endorsement of Van Epps, with exaggerated claims about the Democratic opponent ("She hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music. How the hell can you elect a person like that?" – Trump, [12:47]).
Bain’s campaign is centered around “Feed kids, fix roads, fund hospitals.”
The panel observes that Trump's focus remains on tax cuts, out of touch with economic anxieties.

Quote:
"If this election is close... Republican congressmen around the country are going to say, 'It's just not worth it.' ...There's going to be Republican congressmen who say it's exhausting to run for office. I can go out and get a corporate job... while the gettin's good." – Sam Seder [15:49]

2. Updates from the West Bank: Interview with Jasper Nathaniel

[28:12–68:56]

A. Arrest & Charges Against a Settler

[28:22–32:01]

Nathaniel recounts that an Israeli settler he filmed attacking a Palestinian grandmother was indicted on terror charges—a rare act by Israeli authorities.
The charge is serious (analogous to a hate crime), but Jasper notes skepticism about whether it signals systemic change.
Quote:
"It's the equivalent to like a hate crime charge... it's serious. He could do real time. It doesn't mean that he will... but it's serious. This is extraordinarily rare." – Jasper Nathaniel [30:19]

B. The Detention and Release of Mohammad Ibrahim

[32:10–55:43]

Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American, was held in an Israeli military prison for over nine months after being accused of throwing a stone (which he denied, later confessing under beating and duress).
He was released on Thanksgiving after extensive, relentless pressure from family, activists, and select U.S. lawmakers (notably Chris Van Hollen).
The family endured months of silence, procedural delays, and lack of U.S. governmental action.
Quote:
"There was like literally no effort whatsoever from anybody in the US Government for the first five, six months of his detention." – Jasper Nathaniel [38:20]
Lawmakers "deep in the pockets of AIPAC" secretly assisted without public credit due to fear of political backlash.
Memorable Anecdote: Jasper shares how his own mother led a campaign of daily calls to lawmakers’ offices to shame them into acting, pressuring Sen. Gillibrand and others to finally intervene.
"The message to them has basically been just wait until I leak the call logs that shows... I've called you every single day and you did nothing." – Jasper Nathaniel [42:11]
Mohammed’s release led to the release of the three Palestinian non-American teens accused of the same offense.
Conditions in Israeli military prison are described as barbaric, with children — charged as “security prisoners” — treated like Hamas fighters, subjected to beatings and starvation.
Quote:
"The kids who they pick up on rock throwing charges are known as security prisoners. That puts them in the same category as a Hamas fighter... They are treated under the same terror laws in Israel." – Jasper Nathaniel [49:01]

C. Good Settler/Bad Settler – Systemic Analysis

[56:44–67:18]

Nathaniel discusses the "Good Settler, Bad Settler" narrative, arguing that so-called fringe anarchist violence is intimately connected to the broader settlement movement.
Military and government authorities publicly condemn "violent fringe" settlers while quietly authorizing and legalizing previously “illegal” outposts, integrating them into mainstream settlements.
Quote:
"The violent settlers are essentially the tip of the spear... they terrorize Palestinians, and at a certain point... the 'good settlers' come in and start to build a 'good settlement,' and then the state comes behind them and authorizes it." – Jasper Nathaniel [58:09]
The distinction between “good” and “bad” settlers is a fiction that obscures the violence inherent to the entire settlement project.
Liberal Zionists’ material and political support of settlement organizations, even under the guise of legality or moderation, ultimately upholds ethnic cleansing.
Sam Seder expands the argument, noting that the absence of a real effort among any Israeli coalition to dismantle settlements proves how structural the occupation and expansionism are.
"There is no meaningful movement to extract the settlers from the West Bank and to dismantle the settlement movement... unless the ostensible left wing in Israel is willing to actively dismantle the settlement movement... they're part of the settlement project." – Jasper Nathaniel [65:10]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

Trump’s wild attack ad:
"She hates Christianity. Number two, she hates country music. How the hell can you elect a person like that?" – Donald Trump [12:47]
Jasper Nathaniel on international pressure:
"The more you document these things, the more they are willing to react... pressure is working." [29:16]
On American political cowardice:
"They want to help, but if word gets out that they're trying to help this American kid, they will get in trouble with AIPAC." – Jasper Nathaniel [40:50]
On the settlement project:
"This is how they get new land that they then build settlements on... it's all part of this machine." – Jasper Nathaniel [58:09]

Important Timestamps

[05:44] – Tennessee 7th Election as a bellwether
[09:53] – Trump-and-Johnson fundraising for Van Epps
[14:20] – Afton Bain’s key campaign issues and closing pitch
[28:22] – Jasper Nathaniel on settler indictment in Israel
[32:10] – Details of Mohammed Ibrahim's detention and release
[38:20] – On U.S. Government inaction and grassroots pressure
[49:01] – The draconian logic of 'security prisoner' designation
[58:09] – The “good settler, bad settler” dynamic as state policy
[65:10] – Structural impossibility of an anti-settlement movement inside Israel

Final Thoughts

The episode underscores the importance of reporting from the West Bank; the media vacuum encourages misinformation and undercuts advocacy.
Independent journalism and grassroots activism, rather than establishment media or institutional channels, proved decisive in achieving justice in the case Jasper reported.
Nathaniel and Seder urge American listeners to recognize the extent of U.S. leverage – as well as the obstacles posed by political cowardice and lobby pressure – in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

Links:

Subscribe to Jasper Nathaniel’s reporting: Infinite Jazz on Substack

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Transcript

A (0:00)

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B (3:14)

Inshallah.

A (3:16)

DHS chief Kristi Noem recommending a wide travel ban on incoming foreign visitors. Starbucks to pay nearly $40 million fine over new York City labor law violations as the Starbucks union strike continues and the boycott continues.

B (3:43)

And Bernie and Zoron joined them on the picket line yesterday. Love to see it.

A (3:48)

Trump administration fires almost 30% of the new York City based immigration judges. Costco sues the Trump administration over tariffs. New report US Is funding dramatically fewer grants in every area of science and medicine. Meanwhile, US Manufacturing activity contracts for the ninth month in a row. And lastly, the heartwarming story of RFK Jr. S new top advisor who's also a Covid denier. All this and more on today's Majority report. Somebody's asking if there's a color filter on the thing. I guess we did not necessarily nail it. We're playing around with the. We kind of wanted this to look like a CSI episode, like kind of procedural. Yeah. What happened? It's so much more vibrant than it was like when we did this in the.

A (15:49)

Yeah. I mean you would imagine a place where he was 22 plus. There's a lot of Trump fans and that's what they're hoping to rally. But again, the, if they, if this election is close, if it's within six or seven points, you're talking that Republican congressmen around the country are, you know, and you've got to make allowance for the fact this special election, Democrats may be more tuned in than Republicans and you would expect that to even out a little bit in the, in the, the midterms. But a 50 making up a 15 point death or 15 points of a deficit when you have half the money. There's going to be Republican congressmen mostly, let's be honest, mostly congressmen, it's Republicans that are going to say it's just not worth it. It's exhausting to run for office. I can go out and get a corporate job and use my connections to drain money from the coffers of the government while the getton's good. And I would not be surprised if she is within Five points that we don't hear at least a couple more resignations. If not, or I should say retirements, if not, another resignation. Because people are just not going to want to deal with this losing their seat and then even if they win, they get into the minority. All right, in a moment we're going to be talking to Jasper Nathaniel, publisher of Infinite Jazz on Substack about follow up on what has happened since he has been returned from the West Bank. First couple words from our sponsors. Delete Me makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches and doxing are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. I've been using Delete Me way, way before they became sponsors on this program, obviously. 10 it was more than 10 years ago now. I think that I started using it because I didn't want a lot of my public information floating around out there. 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And a reminder, it's your support that keeps this show going. If you want the free show free of ads, become a member@jointhemajorityreport.com all right, quick break. Jasper, Nathaniel, Sam. Back. We are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Viglen on the Majority Report. Want to welcome back to the program Jasper Nathaniel. He's the publisher of Infinite Jazz on Substack. Folks, if you subscribe to any substack, do yourself a favor, subscribe to Jasper's the firsthand accounts of reporting in the West Bank. For whatever reason, we just don't see many journalists go into the west bank and actually get on the ground reporting. Jasper has done that. Jasper, welcome back to the program. We spoke to you when you came back and we showed some video of that you took when you went out to the olive groves and basically were attacked by settlers. And on Thanksgiving there was some developments in that. In fact, there was developments in two stories that you were pursuing on Thanksgiving. But welcome to the show. Tell us what happened on Thanksgiving.

F (38:20)

Yeah, so basically, there was like virtually, not virtually. There was literally no effort whatsoever from anybody in the US Government for the first five, six months of his detention. After the story broke, that's when I sort of latched onto it. Joseph the reporter connected me with the family, and I started talking with them basically every day. And it became clear pretty much right away that for the most part, not for the most Part that the US Embassy was not interested in helping and that their Florida representatives were not interested in helping. Rick Scott forgetting who the other Florida senator is, she was not interested in helping. And so it was clear that. And it was obviously not going to just sort of matriculate through the Israeli military criminal justice system, like, he was just going to rot away indefinitely. So it was like, okay, this needs to be just a grassroots pressure campaign. And so I basically worked with the family to start haranguing U.S. lawmakers, which included a trip to D.C. as part of a delegation with the families of Americans who had been killed in the west bank, including the father of Saif Allah Kamel. And what happened was, like, certain lawmakers started getting involved. The people you would expect, like Rashida Tlaib and then Chris Van Hollen. I gotta be honest, I didn't even know who this guy was until a year, maybe two years ago. And he just sort of comes out of nowhere. And I have to be honest, he showed real moral clarity in my conversations with his staff and just engaging with them. It seemed like he understood that this was the right thing to do, and so he started becoming really vocal about it. A couple other things that I should just mention. This detail just absolutely cracks me up, so. Or it makes me cry, maybe, but so, like, the pressure campaign builds and builds and builds. You know, we get. I'm working with the family and a couple of organizations like CARE and some others to organize, like, massive phone banking to get representatives. All of it is really aimed at, like, trying to get representatives to call the US Embassy and demand that they do something. But at a certain point.

F (44:33)

Yeah, that's exactly right. And the thing that it seems like finally pushed things over the edge was that after some momentum started to build when Van Hollen started speaking about it pretty regularly, Merkli, Peter Welch from Vermont, and a couple others, the Israeli Embassy in Washington circulated a memoir that, you know, they did it. They tried to do it in secret, but, you know, I got ahold of it pretty much immediately from one of the lawmakers. They circulated a memo to the lawmakers who had been speaking on Mohammed's behalf, full of lies, misinformation, and omissions to basically cast smear Mohammed as a criminal, to deny that he was having any health issues, which we knew that he was, and to basically try to encourage them to shut up about it. And so what happened was that leaked. And then separately, Netanyahu's office finally put out a statement after they were pressured enough, and they basically, Netanyahu doubled down and said he's being charged with committing a potentially deadly crime. And so after those two things happened, I then me and some others and the family and some organization started going back to these lawmakers and showing them, here are the actual medical reports that we were able to get from the prison that show that he has a severe weight loss, that show that he's contracted scabies. Here is the evidence that, you know, contradicts everything that was said by the Israeli embassy and Netanyahu. They're trying to make you look like idiots. They're lying to you. They're manipulating you. And that then triggered a bunch of these lawmakers to then start putting in calls directly to the Israeli authorities, to the prime minister's office, to the prison system. It triggered media. ABC did a story where they asked for comment from them. So basically, what. What happened was we caught Israel in a number of, like, categorical lies where they had contradicted what their own prison medical records were saying, where Netanyahu was contradicting what the actual, like, charging document said. And that had to be pointed out directly to these lawmakers who then finally were like, okay, this is getting ridiculous. And so, like, the reason I make that point is because, you know, we've talked before, obviously, about, like, I think the value of independent journalism versus mainstream journalism. Like, this took months and months and months and months of pressure and, you know, reporting to, like, be able to get all this stuff, to connect these dots, to find these contradictions, to then put it over to the lawmakers to force their hand. Whereas to the extent that any mainstream news outlet even cover this at all, and I should say, like, the New York Times did not, but, like it's one story, and then they forget about it. And there's just really, you know, virtually no impact from that. So it took sort of relentless campaign of activists, of, you know, independent journalists, of organizations of the family, to shame and pressure lawmakers until I think it basically became a big enough headache for them that they then started pressuring the Israeli government. It became a headache for them, and finally, with really no fanfare at all, they just sort of let them out.

F (49:01)

And the kids who they pick up on rock throwing charges are known as security prisoners. That puts them in the same category as, like a Hamas fighter that was arrested after October 7. They are treated under the same terror laws in Israel. They have the same conditions. Ben GVIR oversees it. When you hear Ben GVIR talking about starving terrorists in prison, torturing them, wanting the death penalty, that is capturing these kids who are accused of throwing stones. That's also the security prisoner designation is what Israel used just unilaterally decide after October 7th that they were going to violate international law by barring Red Cross visits to security prisoners because it was a threat to Israeli national security. So connecting all these dots, what we're saying is kids like Mohammed and the other kids who arrested with him, which I want to get back to in one second, these are treated by Israel as terrorists in the same way that a, you know, Hamas fighter would be treated and, you know, subjected to the same conditions. I want to just also make a point that, you know, I think that the. I mean, the reason that I really latched onto Muhammad's case and Some others did. You know, in addition to just sort of the merit of it was that there was a chance to actually like have an influence since he's American. Right. We had like some levers that we could try to pull. It was never to suggest that, you know, the other kids rotting away in prison were any less deserving of freedom. However, what ends up happening, which is kind of an amazing part of the story, is that after he's released, the family's lawyer, they basically immediately gather the families of the three Palestinian non American kids who are all friends with Mohammed, who arrested with him and they use the deal that Mohammed got as leverage to basically say these kids are all being accused of the same thing. Mohammed was, you know, was released and they released the other three kids too. So that happened I think the day before yesterday. So now all four kids are out and you know, there's another 356 Children in Israeli military detention that we know about, probably many more. But the family and you know, certainly the organizations and the activists behind it and me as a journalist plan to like keep pushing on this to you know, raise awareness for the fact that they are treating children in these military detention as terrorists who have been accused of nothing more than throwing a stone if they're being accused of anything at all and to push to get all them out.

F (53:50)

Yeah, I was able to FaceTime with him and yeah, I mean, it was really great. He's like all smiles now. I mean, like I said, he looks like he's just been through hell, which he has. He was also, like, when I talked to him, he was really worried about his other friends. I mean, he had just gotten home the day before and he had left home twice. Once was to visit the grave of his first cousin, Sefa La. By the way, he didn't know that Sefa La was beaten to death while he was in prison. So he gets out of prison and immediately finds out that his first cousin, who he looked up to, he was very close with, had been beaten to death. So one of his trips was to, say, father's grave. The other trip that he took was to go visit the families of the other prisoners and to tell them about how their children are doing since they had heard literally nothing. He is, the family is taking care of a few things and then they're gonna come to Florida. Then I'm gonna go down there and spend some time with them. And I mean, I think there's definitely a story to tell. Like, you know, obviously I'm not pressuring him to, to talk publicly because he's a kid and he just, I think, is like, I it really, like, I knew it the whole time, but talking to him, I was like, yeah, this is like what it's like to talk to a child, right? Like, this is, this is a kid. Like, he wants to go play with his friends. Like, I don't even think he has a Sense of like, oh, I need to tell my story to the world. I think he's more like, I want to go play soccer and like, I want to eat my favorite food and, and I want to help get my friends out and then I want to hang out with my friends. And so, but, but yes, like, the family certainly is committed to telling his story. Not just to tell the story, but again, to raise the issue of, you know, all the child prisoners and in Israeli military detention centers. But, yeah, I'm going to go down to Florida as soon as they're over there, probably in a couple weeks, and we'll see what kind of story there is.

F (57:26)

I wrote this piece when the story of the explosion of settler violence in the west bank during the olive harvest started to break through a little bit. Obviously, I'm pretty deep in it, so I don't have a totally clear sense. But there were stories in the Times and the Washington Post. ABC did a story. It seemed like it was becoming a story that there's this problem of these violent settlers. And it reached the point where Israeli authorities, including Netanyahu, including the army chief, and even leaders in the settlement movement were coming out and condemning the settler violence. What they all say, the way they phrase it, is condemning the fringe anarchist youth, the band of roaming, you know, violent kids who are causing problems and making all the other settlers look bad. And so there's like this real concerted effort to frame the violent settlers that people see in these viral clips, you know, wearing masks and clubbing people and setting fires and attacking people to frame them as an outlier that is completely disconnected from the broader settlement movement, which is, you know, which is respectable and. And peaceful and whatnot. And the piece was meant to basically demonstrate that it's all one movement, and the violent settlers are essentially the tip of the spear. And, I mean, what this actually looks like, just to be really blunt or to be really specific, the head of the army, he's one of the people who condemned these violent settlers. And this guy is. Or the head of the central command in the West Bank, Avi Bluth. He is in charge of going after these violent settlers. He comes out and condemns them, and he says, we'll be putting the full force of the military to go out and get them. So he says that days later, he signs off on authorizing 22 illegal outposts to begin the process of turning that into settlements. So what that actually means, means an outpost is when these violent settlers or the anarchist fringe settlers peel off from a settlement and they go and they plant a flag somewhere and they put up a tent. I know we talked about this last time. And they just basically steal a plot of land, and they start launching attacks from there. And sometimes the military comes in and dismantles them when there's enough pressure, but then they go right back up, and they appear to be sort of acting on their own. But then some time passes, people forget about it. And the head of the central command, the guy who is supposed to be policing these people, authorizes them, begins the process of turning them into one of the respectable settlements. And when you look closely at the relationships between the violent settlers and the activists in the settler community and the leaders of the, you know, ostensibly respectable settlement movement, they're working very closely to basically plot out to map out the west bank, figure out, like, where are the places that we want to build our next settlement? They send out the violent fringe youth who go and they terrorize Palestinians, and at a certain point, maybe they chase them off the land. And then the good settlers come in and start to build a good settlement, and then the state comes behind them and. And authorizes it. And so this, like, whole thing of condemning the violent settlers and, you know, the military claiming they're cracking down on them and Netanyahu, like, it's all part of this machine where they have to act like they're doing something about it. You know, it sort of lets the Tension out of the system. But it is, it is quite literally the, the tip of the spear in the settlement movement. This is how they get new land that they then build settlements on. And so the thing that happened at the synagogue, you know, if you, at the website of that organization, they present the respectable settlements. They first of all, I mean, they just say they are part of Israel. They don't even distinguish between Israel and the occupied west bank, but they paint this picture of these like really beautiful, well run towns. And people who defend this say, you know, these people are not connected to the violent settlers, but if you are supporting that organization, then you are by definition supporting the violence. And so I think that, you know, to, to the extent that liberal Zionism is a real concept, I find it shocking that these people would associate with an organization that supports this movement. And the fact that there's not been more outrage among these ostensible liberal Zionists shows that at, you know, at the very least, they are completely okay with the violent settler movement, which enables them to, you know, to build these respectable, beautiful settlements that are ethically cleansing the West Bank.

F (64:52)

It's a simple fact that the settlement project in the west bank, which is fundamentally a project of ethnic cleansing, is one of, if not the most consistent state project of Israel for the last, at least since 1967. And it is true, as you say, figures like Netanyahu, obviously, Smotrich, Ben gvir, like these guys are, in the case of Ben GVIR and Smotrich, they are settlers, in the case of Netanyahu, he has allied himself with them. They are pushing it forward. But there's just simply never been a meaningful effort to dismantle the settlement movement. And the point I make in that piece is there are absolutely people in Israel, politicians in Israel, who oppose the settlement movement. They do not want to see the settlement building accelerating. They think it's like a threat to security in Israel. They think it's causing them problems. They believe in the 48 lines, but there's no actual movement to extract the settlers from the west bank and to dismantle the settlement movement. And unless you do that, you are for the settlement movement, because what we see is that it's a movement that has to keep growing. It is fundamentally always growing, always looking for new places to settle. I mean, that's why they call it the settlement movement. And so people like to, I think the discourse gets flattened a lot on the Internet the way especially like some anti Zionist folks who like to say, like, they're all the same, the liberal Zionists, the settlers, the right wing, the left wing, like they're all the same. I mean, it's not true. Like, they do have lots of political differences, but at the end of the day, they're all part of this same project. Unless the ostensible left wing in Israel is willing to actively dismantle the settlement movement to remove the 750,000 settlers in East Jerusalem and the west bank, then they're part of the settlement project. And that's just, you know, it's not happening. So, I mean, we saw in 2005 they had to get like a couple thousand settlers out of Gaza and it was like, almost caused a civil war. Yeah.