Unclassified material circulated this week at Central Command headquarters: the latest episode of Hanoch Daum’s satirical series “Life Is a Hard Time,” which centers on the hilltop youth. In 23 minutes, it explained everything: the settler leadership’s double message, the army’s helplessness, the anarchism, the lost youth. Life is indeed a hard time, but less so than the news suggests. Nationalist crime in Judea and Samaria fell from 121 incidents in July to 86 in August to 22 so far in September. The number of innocent Palestinians murdered by settler gunfire stands at a flat zero, pending review of one incident earlier this year whose circumstances are still unclear. The number of innocent Jews murdered by Palestinian gunfire stands at three. That is after countless foiled cells, seized explosive drones, last-minute arrests and a round-the-clock presence in the refugee camps. That it is far more dangerous to be a Jew than a Muslim in Judea and Samaria is obvious. What is astonishing is that it is much more dangerous to be an Arab in Ramla than in Ramallah. This year, 161 Arabs were murdered inside Israel in criminal violence, 34 Palestinians in Judea and Samaria fell victim to local gang wars and 10 bystanders were killed in IDF operations. Next to the Palestinian explosives arena, nationalist crime is a match. But in a fuel-soaked environment, a match can set the whole area ablaze. It can do so through terror attacks, or through a massive wildfire of international sanctions that has only just begun. Contrary to the smears, David Zini’s Shin Bet is doing no less on this front than his predecessors’—in fact, more. The army itself has started imposing economic penalties. Recently, six-figure bills for the cost of evacuation were sent to unauthorized outposts that insisted on going up onto the land again and again. Another order now allows vehicles found at such outposts to be confiscated. You wouldn’t believe how many parents discovered their company lease car had been seized because their son decided to put down roots in Area B. At a recent meeting deep in the field, a few hilltop youths told a senior officer they were the modern-day equivalent of the Tower and Stockade policy of the early days of Zionist settlement. The officer replied that there are 104 new settlements and 170 brand-new farms, all with government approval, and every one of them would be glad of the extra manpower.