Three settlers patrol the site of Friday's ambush. Netanyahu's innocent settlers are trained in combat and heavily armed by the Israeli military.

In Hebron 450 settlers live illegally, according to international law, in the midst of more than 130,000 Palestinians. Why? Because they believe Abraham bought a cave to entomb himself and his family here 4,000 years ago. Apparently, their religious beliefs entitle them to make life unbearable for Palestinians with continued looting, harassment, indiscriminate violence, torture, home demolition and confiscation of land, cutting water supplies and imposing strict curfews. When three Palestinians ambushed and killed four soldiers, including the commander of forces in Hebron, five border police and three security guards from Kiryat Arba, the world was quick to condemn the incident as a "despicable terrorist attack".

Sadly, the world seems to be silent while thousands of innocent Palestinians appear to be in danger of being forced out of their homes, as Sharon plots to exploit the attack to expand the size of Jewish settlements in and around Hebron. Sharon, supporting his Minister of Housing and Construction, Natan Sharansky, said that territorial continuity between the settlement of Kiryat Arba and the Jewish section of Hebron, including the Tomb of the Patriarchs, must be ensured. In fact, settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, have already built a rough outpost near the site of Friday's ambush. Within 24 hours of the settlement's life, the settlers went from pitching tents to hooking up water lines and a generator. By Sunday night settlers were discussing how to get closets and carpeting. By dusk, Israeli boys were laughing and playing soccer on a field where they had never dared venture before, as Israeli soldiers set up a 7-foot-high cement barrier around the new community. Palestinians could do nothing, but watch in silence from their homes.

What is shocking is the realization that 450 extremist settlers, staunchly supported by the Israeli government, are oppressing a population of 130,000 Palestinians and this does not seem to strike a cord with the international community.

Residents of Hebron are under strict curfew as dozens of Israeli armored vehicles were spread out in strategic locations all over the city. Israeli troops forcefully seized seven homes to use as lookout posts, demolished several homes and razed olive trees. Things look to get much worse for the Palestinians as, in addition to the ruthless Israeli military, a settler terror cell promised to violently avenge those killed. More than 800 Israeli settlers attacked nearby Palestinian houses and then smeared the pale stone with blue graffiti that read, "Every Arab Killed - for me it's a holiday".

In recent times, the Israeli government has openly talked of forcefully transferring the Palestinian population, as settlers enjoy growing support from Israel's increasingly fanatical government. This reality of transfer and ethnic cleansing that Palestinians are facing does not seem to concern the international community. Instead, the unfathomable happened, Netanyahu's fable that "Jewish worshippers were massacred" was adopted without question and the true victims, the oppressed Palestinian people, were condemned for defending their rights.