For the past nine days, terrorist organizations in Gaza have made enormous efforts to ignite Judea and Samaria and incite rebellion among Israel's Arab citizens. The desire has been to achieve in what thousands of missiles fired from Gaza have failed: create a sense of insecurity and anarchy among Israeli citizens, inflict a large number of casualties among Israeli security forces, and prove that Hamas is the flagbearer for the "struggle to liberate the homeland."
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In these nine days, the terrorist organizations have shown an impressive ability to fire rockets at Israel and protect their leaders, but have failed in their attempt to foment rebellion in Judea and Samaria or Arab Israelis. Only a handful of Palestinians left their homes to clash with Israeli security forces, and even what initially seemed like a "civil war" between Arabs and Jews in the mixed cities quickly emerged as unbridled rioting by gangs of Arab youths, extremists, hotheads, and those incited by the Islamic Movement in Israel; some with the criminal intent of harming Jews and lynching them.
The Israel Police, caught by surprise, needed several days to regain its composure. However, determined action by the Border Police and Shin Bet security agency to pinpoint the inciting elements among the Arab extremists led to a broad wave of arrests and lowered the flames on the ground. The situation in Judea and Samaria, meanwhile, has remained under control. The Palestinian public, for the most part, didn't take to the streets to demonstrate against Israel. The majority of Arab Israelis didn't join the firebrands in Lod or Wadi Ara.
And so it happened that only Tuesday, nine days after the outset of the military operation in Gaza and as things were finally calming down inside Israel proper and in Judea and Samaria, the skittish Higher Arab Monitoring Committee decided to call for a general Arab strike in an effort to restore its lost dignity. Under these circumstances, the Fatah movement in Judea and Samaria couldn't allow itself to lag behind either and hastily declared a "day of rage" in the West Bank. Both of these calls could ultimately prove to be a double-edged sword. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' security apparatus sent messages to Israel that it wouldn't allow things to spiral out of control, realizing that the spread of anarchy on the ground was only likely to strengthen Hamas supporters and weaken the PA to the point of possible collapse.
Similar messages were also dispatched by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, although it didn't suffice with simply calling for a general strike and also asked Arab residents not to show up to their places of work in Israel. The right to strike is an important right in a democracy, but the attempt by activists to force Arab citizens to skip work at hospitals, pharmacies and other vital facilities in order to harm the Israeli economic fabric, is crossing a line.
According to initial figures, however, many Arab citizens appear to have ignored the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee's calls and showed up for work regardless. Jewish-Arab relations sustained a severe blow over the past few days, but co-existence did not collapse and civil war did not erupt.
This doesn't mean things can simply return to normal. Not in Gaza, where any ceasefire must be conditioned on Israel's right to act whenever necessary to prevent Hamas from rehabilitating its ability to manufacture rockets and missiles. Not in the West Bank, where relations with the PA's security apparatus must be maintained; and not in regards to relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
The recent events have crystallized the urgent need to establish a strong and efficient public security body, to act alongside the Israel Police and be responsible for law enforcement and public order. This new body must focus on identifying inciters and extremists in the Arab sector, work in conjunction with the Arab authorities to methodically collect illegal firearms and eradicate the criminal gangs in the Arab towns and communities. Down the road, it must also move to eradicate lawlessness in the Negev and restore full Israeli sovereignty there.
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