The heightened state of alert ahead of the Passover holiday and the intensification of operations by the security forces remind the people of Israel that liberty and peaceful existence in the motherland comes at a price.
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At this stage, the work of the security forces in dealing with the present challenges is focused on four key endeavors: The first and fundamental effort is for enhanced security in Israel's towns; the second is securing the border fence and the seam zone around the border; the third is intelligence-driven offensive operations in enemy territory to eliminate nests of terror in the Palestinian towns and villages, primarily in the Jenin region; and the fourth was employed yesterday − a military operation in daylight to restore Joseph's Tomb, which had been vandalized by a Palestinian mob.
Each of these four prongs represents a different operational logic and all of them together connect between the essential and obvious push to create a passive defense for life itself and the endeavor to defend the fundamental affiliation of the People of Israel to its land and the tradition of its forefathers.
Terrorism experts are focused primarily on technical questions where investigative and factual support can be provided: For example, how attacks are being perpetrated; what weapons are being used, and where were they purchased; was an attack carried out by a lone-wolf assailant, or by a member of a terrorist organization? When it comes to all these questions, the debate is based on facts and can be held without adopting a values-based stance or a political view. On one fundamental question, however, the professional debate struggles to form a position that is free of any values-based or political bias – namely the big question of why and for what purpose is terrorism being used.
Looking inward, the question that we must ask ourselves is: what are we fighting for? Is it just to defend life and daily routine, or is there another dimension that connects the question of "how one defends one's existence" with the question, "why do we exist and why here, of all places?"
The order given yesterday by the commander of the Samaria Division to his soldiers as forces moved on Joseph's Tomb created a link between these two questions. Giving his order over the radio network to his forces, he said: "In this place, the Land of Israel was promised to our forefather Abraham … and we operate today fearlessly as our forefathers did when they left Egypt … as the sons of kings; Thus we have the privilege to restore the honor of the land to the People of Israel."
It was in this spirit that IDF commanders of the founding generation spoke. At the burial ceremony on Mount Herzl held after the 1967 Six-Day War for the soldiers who fell in the Old City in the War of Independence, Moshe Dayan said, "Our brothers who fell in the War of Independence, we have not forgotten your dreams or the lessons you bequeathed us. We have returned to the Mount, to the cradle of our people, to our patrimony, to the land of the judges, and the fortress of the kings of the House of David. We have returned to Hebron and Shechem (Nablus), to Bethlehem and Anatot, to Jericho and the pools of the Jordan River."
The spiritually arousing order given by the Samaria Division commander resonates with the people of Israel and the peoples of the region. Because we exist in this land and we fight here for our existence with the inspiration of an ancient and godly tradition, and not only in a desperate search for a safe haven.
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