The violent incident that occurred Tuesday in the West Bank village of Kusra could have ended much worse than it did. Had it not been for a few Palestinians who protected a group of settlers with their bodies – and later for the coordinated entry of Israeli troops into the village – the following day's newspaper headlines would be screaming about Jews being lynched and the declaration of a state of emergency throughout the West Bank.

It was hard to feel even a smidgen of sympathy at the sight of the right-wing extremists whom the Israel Defense Forces removed, battered and bleeding, from the skeleton of the building where they were being held by the Palestinians. Their names and faces were well known to reporters who cover events in the territories. They’re the most extreme of the extreme, “hilltop youth” who are regularly suspected of violence against Palestinians.

It’s also hard to believe that the double humiliation they suffered Tuesday – first their captivity at the hands of village residents, then their rescue by the army they regularly accuse of cowardice and defeatism in dealing with Arabs – will do anything to restrain them. Indeed, chances are good that exactly the opposite will occur. Instead of the “price tag” attack that was prevented, we’ll get price tag squared.

The Shiloh Valley, where Tuesday's incident occurred, has been known for years as a hotbed of what the IDF euphemistically terms “bad neighbor” incidents. Such incidents also occur regularly around the settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha, west of Nablus. In contrast, Hebron, which was long a center of violence between settlers and Palestinians, has calmed down a bit compared to recent years.

That an incident like Tuesday's would happen was predictable given the Civil Administration’s demolition of an illegal building in the outpost of Esh Kadosh earlier in the day. Sure enough, a few hours later the usual suspects proceeded unhindered to a nearby Palestinian village with the goal of wreaking havoc; this highlights the security services’ impotency in addressing violence by the extreme right. Military orders barring key right-wing activists from the territories have curbed some of them, but younger generations have arisen to continue their work.

Neither the army nor the police bought the excuse offered for the cameras by spokesmen for the outposts on Tuesday: that the settlers merely went out for a hike and were ambushed by their hostile neighbors. Rescuing these thugs required a brigade-level operation that lasted almost an hour, along with the involvement of senior officers and four IDF and Border Police companies.

The provocations committed by these “price-tag” extremists don’t just give the country a bad name and cause headaches for the security forces. They’re also liable to endanger human life – usually that of Palestinian civilians who are assaulted on their own land, but in this case, that of the right-wing extremists themselves.

Tuesday's incident stemmed from a local event (demolition of a building) that came on top of prolonged and bitter hostility. But it had a broader context. The more progress U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes toward an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and the more reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering major concessions in the talks, the more such acts will happen – this time with the goal of thwarting even the smallest glimmer of hope for a diplomatic breakthrough.