Maj. Gen. Eyal Ben-Reuven and other retired Israeli military leaders have reversed their stance, now viewing Jewish settler violence in the West Bank as the greatest threat to Israel's existence.

Having fought in multiple Arab-Israeli wars and led ground forces in the 2006 conflict against Hezbollah, these veterans previously dedicated their lives to defending the state. However, recent tours of the occupied West Bank revealed scenes of Palestinian schools looted and farmers tortured by settlers. Retired Brig.

Gen. Ephraim Sneh described the situation as "ethnic cleansing," while retired Air Force Gen. Asaf Agmon compared the effort to erase Palestinian presence to what some Israelis' forebears endured in the Holocaust.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, settler violence has intensified under the most right-wing government in Israel's history. The United Nations reports thousands of settler attacks, injuring thousands of Palestinians and displacing more than 3,200 this year alone. Over 200 prominent Israelis, including two former prime ministers and numerous retired generals, signed a letter demanding an end to what they term "Jewish terrorism" and "ethnic cleansing." They accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of pursuing a deliberate policy of complicity involving the military, Shin Bet, and police.

The signatories warn that if this behavior continues, Israeli society faces inevitable doom.