Sparks: Masked settlers attack European diplomats in occupied West Bank

Noticed the masked men waited until the diplomats' own governments were the only witnesses, which tells you the paper the report will be written on before the ink is dry.

They are called settlers because it is a gentler word than the thing itself, and I have seen gentler words wrapped around a whip before and the whip was always still a whip.

You do not send masked men to meet a diplomat unless you have already decided the law does not apply to you and the law has gone along with the decision.

An occupied territory is the purest laboratory of power, for it removes the messy variable of consent and leaves only the naked question of who compels and who is compelled.

The mask is worn for your sake, Europeans, not theirs, because if they struck you with an open face you would have to answer with sanctions, and if they wear a mask you can pretend you saw nothing and sleep tonight.

They are called settlers and not trespassers, and they are called diplomats and not complainants, and until the names are rectified no remedy is possible.

The European Union maintains a comprehensive framework for sanctions, which has been triggered four times and restored the rule of law on each previous occasion, much as a watering can restores a forest.

Observe that the masked attacker faces no predator in this landscape, and where a form faces no predator it will multiply until it covers the whole of the terrain available to it.