Just at the beginning of this week, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said firmly that the government would not allow another terrorist attack like the one that occurred in Hadera to determine its policy. The question is: What is its policy?
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Should new ties cause Israel to curb its response against Palestinian Islamist terrorist elements? The lessons of the Oslo Accords and the war on terrorism that followed have not been forgotten. The government cannot possibly sanctify noble political-diplomatic goals at the expense of Jewish lives in Israel.
It hurts to see the Middle East behave as usual: every time there seems to be something new in the region, it turns out there is not. Israel's new ties with Arab allies are celebrated along with the murder of Jews. It is easy now from a political and diplomatic point of view to attribute the attacks to this all-encompassing umbrella title of the Islamic State. Everyone despises the group. One cannot say horrible words like "Arab," "radical Islam," or even Hamas.
Such attribution confuses the Jews. On the one hand, the principle of the murder of Jews remains intact; On the other, the Palestinians and Arabs of Israel remain unscathed and blameless.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned ahead of Ramadan against "settlement violence" in particular. But reality descends on the seekers of the good in a dark alley. Will they draw conclusions?
One cannot help but think that the current government took office to provide a psychological solution to the mental distress of the upper-middle class and upper class that were unwilling to accept a unity government with the Likud and unwilling to continue to put up with the incessant noise of protesters on Balfour street.
This is not a government that took office to address real national problems. From the very beginning, it lacked the power necessary for such action. For example, the Israel Defense Forces are confiscating weapons in Umm al-Fahm, but are not patrolling Israeli cities.
It was certainly symbolic that the architect of the regional political revolution – the Abraham Accords – the man who knew how to simultaneously preserve the projection of power and deterrence of Israel, was made out to be the villain at the Sde Boker summit. They have turned Benjamin Netanyahu into a non-person. A personality that does not exist.
Already many months ago, some warned that Israel was only playing defense in the face of serious terror attacks. It is unable to find a formula for an offense. As I write these lines, I hear gunshots from my window in central Jerusalem. This is not an attack. These are probably celebratory shots with the sweets to be distributed shortly.
We must unite at this time. Leave the dividing political affiliation behind. To establish the true unity government that Israeli desperately needs in order to set out on the long and difficult journey.
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