The difficult security reality in the Negev has not been created in the past year.
However, the government of Naftali Bennett, which is about to complete its establishment in about three months, has so far refrained from leading a comprehensive campaign to change the situation.
Although there has been a welcome change in the Negev region in the patterns of activity of the Israel Police and the defense systems, the State of Israel has not yet recognized the magnitude of the threat and its roots.
The failure lies in the misdiagnosis of the root of the problem.
In its response to the reality in the Negev, the Israeli government continues to pursue two erroneous assumptions - the first recognizes the bulk of the threat in criminal crime, while the second assumption perceives the phenomenon of crime as stemming primarily from social and economic distress.
Both assumptions are based on a partial view of the phenomenon and deny the fact that the roots of the problem lie in a national-religious struggle against the sovereignty of the State of Israel.
An examination of the Israeli government's investment data in the Bedouin sector in the Negev, including the extent of the allocation of land for construction by the Israel Land Authority, and certainly a comparison of land prices in non-Bedouin localities, can refute the claim of discrimination.
Data from the Negev Development Authority show an unprecedented volume of state investment in Bedouin localities.
The second assumption, which sees the causes of crime as the main source of the governance problem, can also be refuted.
There is no question about the intensity of the criminal threat, but it is a mistake to ignore the significance of the deep connection between the criminal dimension and the nationalist dimension.
In other words, the Israeli government and the defense establishment lack a comprehensive systemic theory of what is happening in the Negev, and there are two possible explanations for this.
The first explanation: The Israeli leadership in recent decades has been characterized by a tendency toward governance and operations.
The intention - to reduce the phenomenon to something that results from economic and social distress, makes it possible to give it a managerial solution in a government action plan and a financial investment.
In a problem arising from a national-religious struggle, on the other hand, there is no managerial answer in a familiar and convenient pattern of action.
The second explanation: walking in me follows the modern assumption that every problem has a solution in a positive spirit.
The Israeli leadership is led here by the American assumption that all human beings share their passion mainly for improving the quality of life and money will answer everything.
Even an eternal national struggle can, so to speak, be converted into an economic response and the temptation to prosper and improve quality of life.
But in recent decades the American gospel of bringing human beings to the democratic light has collapsed and been refuted.
Despite huge capital investments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the reality has been revealed as expressing counter-forces, which do not respond to the American gospel of happiness.
Despite this, Israeli society and its leadership continue to cling to the promise of American happiness and prosperity as if it were the essence of man.
The time has come to recognize that a renewed war of independence over the sovereignty of the State of Israel is taking place in the Negev.
The Government of Israel and the security forces are required to conduct a comprehensive and prolonged campaign through all the security forces, including IDF units. In this campaign, economic dimensions also play a role, but they must be integrated into a comprehensive and long-term security effort.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us