The demand of the designated Minister of Internal Security - or in the new name: National Security - Itamar Ben Gvir to harness the Shin Bet to fight crime emanating from the Arab sector indicates the seriousness of his intentions to fight "full on" this danger, whose dimensions threaten to drown not only the Negev and the Galilee, but the entire State of Israel.
The amount of illegal weapons in the hands of Israel's Arab citizens, the growing audacity of the acts of rioters from among this sector and the motivation that combines a nationalist motive with a criminal motive - all these exclude the phenomenon from the "just" criminal area and place it in its true magnitude as a real existential danger.
Those who did not understand this earlier, could prove the seriousness of the problem in the violent riots of May 2021, during the wall guard operation.
In the days of disturbances, we saw how the feeling of "every Dalim is a man", which spread among the Israeli Arabs in the criminal aspect, translates into an open war on the Jewish state while it is busy fighting an external enemy.
If we don't put an end to this danger now, next time it will take a more serious form, and for the first time in the history of Israel's wars we will have to fight on the internal front, in addition to other fronts.
According to the General Security Service Law, 2002, "the service is charged with safeguarding the security of the state, the order of the democratic regime and its institutions, against threats of terrorism, sabotage... and the service shall also act to safeguard and promote other essential state interests for the national security of the state, and all As determined by the government and subject to any law." From this it is clear that dealing with classic crime is not one of the Shin Bet's tasks, but from the moment Arab crime picked up a gear and joined the effort to harm the security of the state, the fight against it came within the scope of the Shin Bet's duties.
As a volunteer with the "Hashomer Hashem" organization for more than a decade, I can testify that the rampant agricultural crime is largely motivated by the desire to harm the Jewish state by harming a single farmer.
It is no coincidence that the Jewish farms are forced to add more and more fences and security measures, while the Arab farms do not bother to do so: their owners know that there is no danger of robbery or harm hovering over them.
Unlike them, Jewish farmers know very well that those who come to harm them at night (and recently also in daylight, because the fear of the law has almost completely disappeared in the Arab sector) have a dual purpose: to steal, and at the same time to cause financial and psychological damage that will force them to leave the land.
Actually, sometimes only the second goal guides the criminals, and then they "only" cut fences, cut down trees, break equipment, poison animals or set fire to buildings and grain, without even stealing anything.
The attempt to eliminate Jewish agriculture as part of the struggle of the Arabs against the Jews for the lands harms a vital state interest for the national security of the state,
The necessity to involve the Shin Bet in the matter is also based on practical considerations, and not only on legal grounds. It is clear to everyone, for example, that without the involvement of the Shin Bet, the attempts to collect the illegal weapons will not succeed.
Although even given the technological and other means of the General Security Service this is a difficult goal to achieve, but without them it becomes completely impossible.
Just think what would happen if the thousands of canes remained in the hands of nationalist criminal elements and would one day be directed against the security forces or against ordinary Jewish citizens.
The Shin Bet is able to prevent this horror scenario, and it would be nice one hour earlier.
Before the subject of the Shin Bet's participation in the fight against Arab crime also becomes a political issue, it is important to clarify that voices of support for the move were heard even in the outgoing government. Former Prime Minister Bennett and the outgoing Minister of Internal Security spoke on various occasions in favor of the move. They spoke, but did not act, as in many other areas. I have every hope that the right-wing government established before our eyes will be able to act by all means - and the Shin Bet certification is only one of them - so that at the end of its shift we can congratulate the results of its actions.
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