"I read your column about the stones thrown at your son and husband, and I want to talk to you. Can we stop by for a visit?" is the spontaneous appeal I received this week from a senior official in the Judea and Samaria Division. So we sat down and talked about iced coffee and slices of watermelon. The guest in our home in Ofra belongs to the breed of people who know how to listen. He gave our 12-year-old a good feeling—someone with ranks on his shoulders cared that they tried to murder him and his father.
Last Thursday night, ten Arab terrorists from the village of Deir Dibwan crushed Jewish vehicles traveling on Route 60, the main road of the mountain boulevard, just south of Ofra. Our vehicle was also badly damaged. The passengers emerged, thank God, unharmed. This was only part of riots throughout the area and serious attempted murders, especially near Ateret. There, the heavy stone throwing and rioting led to the closure of the only access road to the settlement. The residents of Ateret, who tried to return home that evening, had to wait for many hours in Neve Tzuf.
Of course, I was happy with the officer's visit to our home. I wish every child, even someone who doesn't happen to be the son of a journalist, would be treated with such empathy and warmth in a similar situation. And I wish even more that quiet would return to our roads, and that children would simply return home safely. Beyond my sincere concern, the official also wanted to give me a broader picture of the neighboring village of Deir Dibwan. In the column, I wrote that Deir Dibwan is considered a relatively quiet village, and the fact that rioters emerge from a quiet place indicates that violence is expanding and anarchy is rampant.
How did I conclude that this was a quiet village? I visited there in September 2019 the home of Mansur Mansur, who was then mukhtar of the Mansra clan. He is a moderate man who owns a chain of pharmacies in the United States and worked for the welfare of the residents of Deir Dibwan in the fields of health and education. The visit was made together with activists of the Green Israel Forum, as part of an article I prepared for Yedioth Ahronoth about the damage caused by quarries in Judea and Samaria. The Green Israel Forum then tried to lead a joint struggle of Arabs and Jews against the establishment of a quarry. Mansour then agreed to be interviewed and spoke against the quarry's construction. In the end, the legal and public battle failed, and Tarfi Quarry currently devours the wilderness and harms its neighbors to the south, the residents of Deir Dibwan, and its neighbors to the north, the residents of Ofra.
The vehicle of the Erlich family after being stoned, photo: Joint Committee for Security on the Alon Road
But at least I earned a visit to the neighboring village then. It has been a dream of mine for years, to sit down for a conversation with the neighbors I pass by on the way to Jerusalem. Deir Dibwan is not a small village of a handful of olive trees and three chickens. The truth is that the term "village" does the place an injustice. This is a luxury town with vast palaces amidst a beautiful mountain landscape. Most of the town's residents have U.S. passports, and they combine living in the land of the Bible and Uncle Sam's land. Turmus Aya is also a luxury town in a similar style.
The official who visited our home explained that in the past six months, something has changed in the neighborhood. Something I didn't even know. South of Deir Dibwan on village land, Elisha Yared, a rising star in the so-called hilltop youth, led together with other activists to establish the Sde Yehonatan farm. Since then, according to the official, and according to a security source in the Binyamin Council with whom I spoke, the level of friction in the area between Jews and Arabs has risen, and stone throwing at Jewish vehicles on Route 60 has increased.
Not them, and certainly not I'm arguing that there is something in the world that justifies throwing stones at moving vehicles. The stone-throwing terrorists who came out of Deir Dibwan or um Safa are potential murderers who must be dealt with harshly by the IDF. But it is important to say that the IDF is merely doing this. On almost every trip along Route 60, I see IDF soldiers patrolling the barricades, protecting the junctions, in addition to ongoing activity and special unit activity deep in the area. The Shin Bet, IDF, SWAT unit and CBS eliminate or arrest terrorists every night throughout Judea and Samaria. Terrorists from Deir Dibwan, which had a nationalist awakening even before the farm, were arrested several times. Last week, for example, a terrorist from another village not far from Deir Dibwan was arrested, less than 24 hours after shooting at soldiers near Ofra. This is another routine arrest that did not resonate, part of the arduous activity being carried out in Jenin and Nablus and in the villages of Judea and Samaria. Night after night, the best of our sons and daughters are working with all their might so that we settlers will sleep soundly.
A new guy came to the neighborhood
The riots by hundreds of Jews in Luban ash Sharqiya, Turmus Aya, Urif and um Safa are reprehensible in themselves, and they also undermine the IDF's ability to guard settlements and roads. The security forces are stretched to the limit. Soldiers who are forced to quarrel with Jewish rioters, who damage the property of Arabs who have no connection to terrorism, are unable to carry out the assassination or arrest of those involved in terrorism at the same time. This is not an empty warning. Two offensive attacks to arrest terrorists planned in Samaria and Binyamin had to be postponed to another date following the riots in Urif and um Safa. Who will pay the price?
On every trip along Route 60, I see IDF soldiers patrolling the barricades, protecting the junctions, in addition to ongoing activity deep in the area. The Shin Bet, IDF, SWAT unit and CBS eliminate or arrest terrorists every night throughout Judea and Samaria
In the week that has passed since the terrible attack on my husband, I feel how the Binyamin region is changing in front of my eyes, which has grown within it phenomena that did not exist in the past. A new generation has grown up here under our noses that doesn't care what they sound and look like, and what the consequences of venting their rage are. One can understand the terrible pain of young people from Shiloh Hills, who have just buried two friends. The blood is boiling in the face of terror that raises its head, in the face of the feeling of insecurity. But we, as teenagers in the past, also lost friends and neighbors and suffered severe terror attacks, and we didn't think to take the law into our own hands. We demanded then, and we demand today, that the government allow and encourage the military echelon to act as the sole sovereign on the ground. If the settlers themselves contribute to the process of Lebaneseization of Judea and Samaria, with their own hands they will bring destruction to the settlements.
So what is Benjamin going through? In order to understand this, I decided to become better acquainted with the work of Elisha Yared, my new neighbor at Sde Yehonatan. The interest in Bird is not personal, but as a representative of the new generation, which for a bourgeois like me who lives in a stone house in Ofra, is an enigma.
Yared, 22, describes himself on Twitter as follows: "Married and father of two, activist of the Land of Israel and resident of Ramat Magron, a current and future hilltop boy." On various news sites, he is sometimes referred to as a spokesman for the hilltop youth. For four months he left the pasture and became the spokesman for MK Limor Sun Har Melech of Otzma Yehudit.
He resigned from the corridors of the Knesset after criticizing the lax security policy of the full-fledged right-wing government. Yared grew up in Yitzhar, and at an early age was expelled by administrative order from Judea and Samaria. After leaving Yitzhar, he established Maoz Esther Hill near Kochav Hashahar, and from there continued to Ramat Magron, where he lives to this day and at the same time, with the help of younger boys, operates the Sde Yehonatan farm.
In order to understand the circumstances of his departure from Yitzhar, I spoke with a settlement source in Samaria. "In Yitzhar, various measures were taken so that Elisha would be removed from there," explains the source, who cannot be suspected that settling in Judea and Samaria will not happen to him. "He fell out with the Yitzhar leadership as well as with his friends. He is a rebellious, anarchist, does not accept any authority. No one had control over him. He even got into a fight with some older guys in the hills, who had his back and he used to live with them. He spat into the well from which he drank, so he became uncomfortable and left.
"By the way, he wants to return to Yitzhar, but they won't let him. Yared is not the only one, there are some guys like that who agitate. They create friction points with Arab villages in Samaria and Binyamin that were relatively calm in the past, and light up the area. Some of them are white-collar, supposedly spokespeople or journalists. We meet them at all kinds of security events, and suddenly they are journalists who stand by and only take pictures, and there are others who do the provocations. The question is, how did they get ahead of everyone else? They adopted the methods of Arab social networks and foreign agencies. Create the provocation, and then take care to photograph it and thus produce materials that are exclusive.
"Yitzhar made it clear to both Elisha Yared and others that they were not welcome there. They were told that if they wanted to make a mess, then not in Yitzhar. The leadership in Yitzhar suffered threats and harassment, and was not deterred. Eventually, they left and founded Maoz Esther together, but after they quarreled, he moved to Ramat Migron." Yared did not quarrel only with the leadership of Yitzhar, he also waged a campaign with the leadership of Har Bracha, and the Yishuv filed a libel suit against him."
"Quietest night"
Along with the use of sticks, which included removing agitators from Samaria, candy was also distributed to the hilltop boys. The candy distributed in Yitzhar was the construction of a hill under the auspices of the settlement. Only those who passed an absorption committee and signed a commitment to appropriate behavior were allowed to ascend the hill. "Today, the guys who received authority have already reached the point where they want to enlist in the army or do national service. I'm talking to you about boys who, at the age of 14, could be found every Monday and Thursday in a different Arab village. Those who were expelled from Samaria are celebrating today in Binyamin or the South Hebron Hills. Every time a mess arises in Benjamin, we smile under our mustaches and laugh, 'It's great that now we don't have trouble. Now it's already a problem for Israel Gantz, the head of the Binyamin Council.' Yitzhar does not regret the moves they made there. While other communities on the back of the mountain are suffering from difficulties due to the security situation, Yitzhar is flourishing and growing in the number of residents and on the ground, because the systems are no longer fighting it."
Really beautiful. You saved Yitzhar and passed the troubles on to Benjamin.
"This is a phenomenon that has now made headlines, but in general, we are slowly seeing that in normal times young people no longer join the 'price tag.' The hundreds of guys who rioted after the funerals did so as an outlet. The more extreme core was just waiting for such an event in order to attract as many young people as possible, who are routinely normative. However, it seems to me that Benjamin still does not understand the depth of the problem, and does not treat it enough. You can't just say that the police will take care of it. From our experience, we need to work around a round table together with the police, the Shin Bet, the Civil Administration and welfare agencies. Sometimes there is no choice, and only restraining orders from Judea and Samaria calm these guys."
"In Yitzhar, various measures were taken so that Elisha would be removed from there," explains a source in Samaria. "He fell out with the Yitzhar leadership as well as with his friends. He is a rebellious, anarchist, does not accept any authority. No one had control over him. He spat into the well from which he drank."
I spoke at length with Elisha Yared himself. I told him about the stones our car had hit. "I know this incident. I hate to say that it was the only night I breathed a sigh of relief and managed to sleep properly in the past month, because on normal days they make our lives miserable, on the south side of Deir Dibwan. This is a nationalist and murderous village. We have a flock of sheep here in Sde Yehonatan, and day and night we are attacked here. The one leading this is the Palestinian Authority, which established the Committee Against the Settlements, which consists of released terrorists. Night after night we deal with disturbances, IEDs and shootings.
"It went on for so long because of the brigade commander. He prevents arrests and offensive activity here," Yared marks Col. Eliav Elbaz as the enemy of the settlements, the new demon. Yared says that for the past year and a half he has been briefing and extroverting items to various media outlets that personally attack the brigade commander. The shameful incident, in which Elbaz was expelled from the shiva by anarchists who called him a "murderer," is largely the result of Yared's propaganda. In a conversation with me, Yared expresses understanding for the despicable calls against the brigade commander, as well as for the attacks on Turmus Aya.
"If you feel like condemning - condemn"
Like any person, certainly one who does so much, Elbaz is not without mistakes, but Meir has come down in a huge spotlight on local failures that make it impossible to see the bigger picture. His propaganda succeeded in attracting many good people from the bourgeois settlements as well. Thus, when the Ofra leadership issued a letter of support for the brigade commander, many voices were heard from residents who opposed this step. So for everyone's benefit, let's look at the bigger picture: Elbaz does not sleep night after night out of deep devotion to protecting the residents of Binyamin. Every civilian or security official who works with Brigade Commander Benjamin, and is familiar with his work and functioning, describes him as a person of the highest order, one of the most determined, offensive, initiating and striving for contact.
Brigade Commander Binyamin Eliav Elbaz, Photo: IDF Spokesperson
"Elbaz came to console just when all the friends were there," says Yared, "People expressed their anger in bad words. If you feel like condemning, condemn. I explain to you what happened. Poorly worded people expressed what they feel – that the brigade commander's security lawlessness led to the murder of a friend of ours. They translated it into the word 'murderer.'"
The terrorists did not come from Binyamin, they came from Samaria. Why blame Brigade Commander Benjamin?
"What's the connection? Everyone knows that security lawlessness conveys weakness, and when there are no offensive actions, and there is containment of attacks, the results are disastrous."
Why do you say that there is no offensive activity if terrorists are eliminated and arrested every night?
"It doesn't excite me that arrests are being made. Interesting to my grandmother. Stopping terrorists is not offensive. It is necessary to make a crown on murderous villages, seize houses in the village and arrest the town's dignitaries. It's offensive."
Do you think it's at the brigade commander level? Can the brigade commander do this without the prime minister approving it?
"This murderous village is under the authority of a brigade commander, and these basic things were not done. The problem is not only with the brigade commander, but also with the commanding general, who is leftist, and I also have strong criticism of the political echelon."
That way, a 22-year-old who didn't serve in the army, provides security assessments with determined passion, sure that the whole truth is only with him. The one who indirectly benefits from the accusing finger pointed at the military echelon is the political echelon. There are several ministers in the government who, as opposition members, used to attack the government over the security situation. Now it is convenient for them that the public that elected them is directing the arrows of its anger at the military echelon. They condemn, of course, the attack on the brigade commander; In practice, they reap electoral gains from radicalization on the ground.
Instead of anyone who elected a full-fledged right-wing government admitting that the attempt failed, they lash out at the IDF. But the truth is that the IDF has been begging for several weeks to be allowed to act with full force in Jenin and Nablus in order to empty the nests of terror there, and the one who hesitates is the Israeli government. The plumes of smoke and the scenes of fire at Turmus Aya only increased international pressure on the government, further delaying extensive military activity in Jenin and Nablus.
"Suddenly - a joint statement"
"There is confusion at the highest levels of the defense establishment," says Israel Gantz, head of the Mateh Binyamin Council. "I want a moment to talk about Ateret, because what happened there last weekend is a case study. There is an organized farm that exists there near Neve Tzuf, with an organized grazing contract from the Settlement Division, within the boundaries of the settlement. Last week, they set up a roast for cows. No constructions, no more people. On Thursday, Arab rioters descended from um Safa and stoned dozens of Jewish vehicles. The road was closed for about four hours. I spoke to those who needed it in the IDF, and I made it clear that the road must be open and safe. Unfortunately, there were no reactions to this on the ground. Throwing a stone should be a red line that you can't live with, let alone blocking a road."
The IDF, by the way, claims that it is a canopy located very close to the village cemetery, which offended the honor of the villagers and agitated them.
"But what hurts me? If there wasn't (unacceptable) Jewish violence, you and I probably wouldn't be talking about it, and that's exactly what residents feel. The daily terrorist incidents here are not dealt with, and then such an incident suddenly grabs headlines, and suddenly the whole system cries out and suddenly there is a special statement by the three heads of the security establishment. This is a very difficult feeling for the residents.
"Elbaz is my friend, I love him and know how much he gives his life for the security of the state and the settlements," Gantz says. "I know how painful it is for him every little failure, and every stone that hurts a Jew. However, in the end, we as residents expect the military to act effectively and are frustrated when this does not happen. Elbaz probably made mistakes too, but the criticism directed at him is intended mainly for the higher echelons, which fail to provide a security response and protect the lives of civilians, and then also create an outwardly distorted picture that reflects symmetry between murderous Arab terrorism and a small and marginal criminal group. Those who do illegal things must be dealt with with acceptable enforcement tools. It's obvious.
"I stood at the funeral at Shiloh, saw the screams and identified very much with the pain. But I knew that from this searing pain bad things could also come out. We, as a council, are trying with one hand to shake up the military systems for carrying out security missions, and as far as I can as head of the council also influence policy in this area, but with the other hand I, as a settlement person, must direct the activity to the building and expansion of the settlements. Both of the settlements and of the regions. I have been busy with this a lot in recent days, and I believe that it is right that the pain of young people should be channeled there."
Still, where is your responsibility and that of the rest of the leadership in the face of the reality of extreme phenomena?
"I am very connected to reality and recognize that even if we are talking about individuals, it is a problem for us and we need it and deal with it, and do not underestimate it. Just today we had a broad executive discussion about this. This requires a lot of delicacy and investment, and we do it by promoting designated programs on an ongoing basis and in times of crisis, and we also see many successes. We have excellent professionals on the council who are doing wonderful work in this area. Naturally, you don't see the successes in this area, and that's okay."
Tug of war
The expulsion of the brigade commander cannot be separated from a campaign waged against him personally, which included publishing his personal phone number. Calls ran through a WhatsApp group to send him "respectful and legal" messages, without curses or threats, about the holy work he was doing. If you happen to be shot at, don't disturb him. He's busy right now," the message circulators added sarcastically. Some of the polite messages that reached the brigade commander included phrases such as "We will not forget and we will not forgive the anti-Semitic Klages among us." The wave of angry messages sent to the brigade commander paralyzed his personal mobile.
This dangerous style of protest can be called by one name: a protest of destruction. There is a protest, even persistent and determined, which is a protest of correction, and there is a protest that burns everything. The protest of destruction that erupted this week in the settlements cannot be seen separately from the protest against the legal reform.
On the left, too, forces of destruction have arisen, working to encourage businessmen to spend money from Israel in order to harm the Israeli economy. There are bubbling forces that are making every effort to dismantle the IDF through an organization of rejectionism, where there are violent and anarchist elements blocking roads and rioting. And there are leaders who call for civil disobedience to destroy the country. Both on the right and on the left, more and more moderates are being dragged after the extremists into a protest of destruction, instead of leading a protest of correction.
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