Before addressing the key issues, this column must begin with an unequivocal and unwavering clarification: the recent scenes of Jewish protesters running amok and carrying out acts of vigilante retaliation in the Palestinian villages of Umm Safa, Turmus Ayya, and Urif, must be vigorously condemned. Both as they involved random attacks on innocent people and also due to the fact that these random acts of violence only add fuel to the fire rather than preventing it, they undermine national security rather than helping in any way. Those hooligans who entered the villages and burned down houses endanger lives and should be thrown into prison.
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In addition, it is also important to state that, further to what was said by the Minister of Settlements and National Missions, Orit Struck, security forces work night and day, regularly putting their life on the line, in order to protect all citizens of the State of Israel, on both sides of the Green Line (Struck, who later apologized, had implied that they were like the Wagner Force for acting on their own). One of the leading figures in the Judea and Samaria leadership spoke to me at the beginning of the week, and the tough message he relayed is a reflection of the immense complexity characterizing the situation in Judea and Samaria in recent times.
People at the grassroots level have simply blown a fuse
"I really am at a loss as to what to say about what happened in the villages. On the one hand, if my son had been one of those to enter there I would have given him a good hard slap across the face; on the other hand, we really are 'sitting ducks'. The security forces are not doing their work and we have been left on our own. What can you say to a woman who travels, day in day out, from Ateret to Ofra or from Elon Moreh to Tapuach Junction? We have been left to fend for ourselves and nobody is prepared to do what is required to eradicate this phenomenon."
This has taken over a year, with considerable patience on the part of the settlers, who have seen their relatives and friends murdered and wounded in front of their very eyes, while actions against the Palestinians have been generally rather restrained, but the horrific terrorist attack at the gas station last week was the tiny straw that broke the camel's back. Just imagine, you are sitting down to eat at a restaurant, when all of a sudden a terrorist starts shooting wildly, butchering anybody in his path. Now, imagine that for the last year, you have been crying out that this is precisely what will happen and nobody is prepared to take the requisite steps to prevent the continued acts of terrorism, and at the end of the day, your 'prophesy' has come true. Imagine that you are taking your kids to their after-school activities and you just don't know if you will return home safely.
The IDF has failed and the settlers have been left with no option but to take action
In Judea and Samaria, people are unashamedly blaming the security forces for the ineptitude that led to the recent violence in the Binyamin region. The Head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Ganz, phoned senior IDF officers on a number of occasions prior to the recent rampage, warning that after riots by the Palestinians on the Trans-Binyamin Highway, they are preparing for serious action and it was important to bring in sizable forces into the area. Even in real-time, during the rioting by the Palestinians, there was only a small military force on site, so consequently the local residents were forced to react against them, and this was later documented and published.
In other words, as the residents of Binyamin say, the IDF failed in its mission and so the settlers were forced to take action. A senior settlement figure recently told me that an extremely important official in the defense establishment expressed some form of support for Palestinians carrying arms. "There is chaos within the Palestinian Authority and they need to protect themselves," he told me. If that is what senior officials have to say, then what can you expect from the settlers?
The IDF is genuinely working night and day to protect all Israelis, that is something which cannot be doubted, but they do appear to be caught up with a notion that they are capable of calming things down on the ground, and everybody else along with it too.
Fed up with anarchy
These recent images might not yet be reminiscent of the Second Intifada – although they are definitely on the way to it – but they do clearly evoke memories of the First Intifada. On the eastern side of the State of Israel, anarchy is currently rife. Palestinian terrorists are doing their utmost to murder Israelis, and in the absence of governance on the part of the defense establishment and the government, radicalization is also beginning to occur on the Israeli side too. "Hilltop youth? They are not radical hilltop youth," a figure from the settlement movement said to me when I spoke to him about the recent spate of rioting. There are hundreds of Israelis involved in this, some of whom were considered, until recently, to be more reasonable "middle-of-the-road" types, but they too are now sick and tired of the anarchy, the lack of governance, and they are adopting a highly problematic approach that is causing damage. The Israeli leadership, the government, the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, better known as Shin Bet, and the police, must all wake up immediately and engage in a concerted effort to restore security, and no less important – the sense of security. It is high time that the members of the government take a moment from dealing with topics such as the judicial reform and address this genuinely burning issue, as the price here is that of human lives. If necessary, then they should not be afraid to threaten to dissolve the government, provided that this might remedy something in this bizarre state of affairs.
At the same time, the defense establishment must understand what is happening at the moment in Judea and Samaria, rather than trying to convince themselves that they can calm things down. We are not on the verge of an explosion, we are actually in the midst of an explosion, and the time has come for the politicians to take a firm grip on the reins of power. We shouldn't have to wait for a rocket fired from Jenin to fall in Hadera's city center. "Let the IDF win", was the slogan used on posters during the Second Intifada. And indeed, it might just be time once again to let the IDF win.
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