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... The United States, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has issued a scathing rebuke, perhaps because one of the homeowners is a Palestinian American living in Ohio.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as "terrorists." Israel's defense minister dismissed them as radical misfits -- "boys on the hills."

In reality, they are the tip of the spear for a much larger movement, supported by successive Israeli governments and supercharged under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that is aimed at cementing Israeli rule over the territory and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state. ...

Israel's current government and much of its political class view the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and see the settlements as key to maintaining security.

Most of the international community views all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace. ...