There is something remarkably predictable about the way Israeli society tells itself stories.
An incident occurs, and within minutes the roles are assigned: there is a victim and an attacker, the righteous and the guilty. Only later, if at all, are the facts carefully examined. By then, public opinion has already reached its verdict.
That is what happened on Friday in Tell, a Palestinian village southwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers and soldiers killed four Palestinians after dozens of armed settlers stormed homes and farmland on the village's outskirts early in the morning.
Two Israelis, a settlement security guard and an army officer, were also shot dead.
The initial Israeli headlines told of an "Israeli hiker" killed in a gunfight; the words "terror attack" and "terrorists" followed within hours. The entire village was effectively put on trial before any serious investigation had begun.
