You probably haven't heard of Israel. Israel is a 22-year-old man, married and father of a six-month-old daughter. Israel spent the past week lying in the neurosurgical intensive care unit at Soroka with three skull fractures, fractures that paralyzed half of his face and caused hearing loss in one ear. Israel is a shepherd who went out last Saturday with a few other young men to graze his flock on the grounds of Havat Ma'on in Mount Hebron. At one point, Israel and its members were attacked by dozens of masked Arab rioters and four far-left activists.
"We document poorly," one local resident told me sadly this week, but the truth is that what the Jews who were attacked managed to document in the horrific event last Saturday is worth gold. It is worth gold because it exposes the method.
They had a method: first they invaded pastureland or near settlements, agitated and harassed, then the Arab rioters threw stones while left-anarchist activists filmed the attacked side, of course – and in the end they went to cry on social networks and to European masters about settler violence. This has been the method for a long time and in many places throughout Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, and this time, in the case of Israel, it was also caught on camera. In the picture, the anarchist stands, calmly, photographing the Jewish shepherds, and behind him stand several masked Arabs with rocks in their hands, just before being thrown. A moment later, Israel was lying bleeding on the ground from the same rocks thrown by the Arabs.
The anarchists dance a gentle tango, in which they do not dirty their hands with "pure" terror but sponsor that terror. They come to the field, provoke the provocation, create the conditions for terrorism - and in the end also blame the victim. These anarchists, for the most part, are regular and well-known activists. Sometimes reinforcements from anarchists from Europe or other countries in the world arrive. Some of them are Jews, some are not, some are here on a tourist visa issued by the State of Israel, while they engage in real harm to its citizens and residents, and directly and dangerously interfere with IDF soldiers and the police.
We must call the child by his name: the activists of the extreme left, these anarchists, constitute a security threat, and they should be removed from the field.
Unfortunately, and I also speak from the throats of soldiers and commanders in the IDF, and of course from the throats of settlers in these friction zones, the wind blowing towards the anarchists from the direction of the head of the Central Command, Yehuda Fuchs, is like peace activists or human rights activists. This seems to be a worldview, and it makes the lives of soldiers and residents alike miserable, to the point of real harm to their bodies and souls, as we saw last Saturday and in previous incidents, and if nothing changes, so will the future.
And not only the commanding general, but also the political echelon is a major player here. If under Defense Minister Gantz it might have been possible to understand where this stems from, now, in the right-wing government, this is unacceptable. Even if the OC does not regard the anarchists as an agitator and dangerous element, Defense Minister Galant should point the way and not be dragged in.
Just as the great State of Israel knows how to keep extreme right-wing elements out of the territory on an ongoing and consistent basis, by various means, so it must know, and especially please, exclude extreme left-wing elements from the territory. The equation cannot be one-sided and cost in blood.
Just before Israel was wounded, he cried out for help to soldiers in the area. "Soldier, stones are being thrown at us," he called out, surrounded by a flock of sheep. The already overloaded soldiers took time to arrive, precious time that cost Israel injury.
"What a poor thing," I said to someone who knows Israel intimately. "Poor thing, that's the word that doesn't relate to this guy the most. It's at least as strong as the rock they threw at it, and it will come out even stronger."
It is true that the farmers throughout Judea and Samaria are made of solid material, but the irresponsibility of the state cries out to the sky.
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