Large quantities of weapons and ammunition are in irresponsible hands: as a result of smuggling from Jordan and theft of weapons from the IDF – and especially following the Oslo Accords, in which we flooded Judea and Samaria with weapons – the Arab street in the Negev, Galilee and Judea and Samaria has become violent and dangerous.
The IDF's unilateral withdrawal and the evacuation of northern Samaria have left a vacuum that the extremist terrorist organizations have penetrated, and the Palestinian Authority is unwilling or unable to take over the territory.
As deputy division commander during the period before and after Defensive Shield, and in the wave of terrorist attacks that struck Israel in 2002-2000, we came to the understanding that the scope of terrorism required broad military action.
The Shin Bet does its important work between wars, but there is a moment when the leaders must decide to change course and give the IDF the lead in the war on terror, of course in cooperation with the Shin Bet. The Shin Bet deals with precise intelligence about a terrorist or a cell, or maybe even an organization. But the threat the IDF faces in Jenin and elsewhere requires military intelligence and large-scale, long-term military might. The quantity of IEDs and weapons in the field requires broad aggressive action, not just targeted surgical operation.
Every arrest of wanted persons in these areas sometimes opens with "light" fire, stones, Molotov cocktails and, more recently, powerful IEDs. These are not riots, but rather an attempt to prevent the arrest of wanted persons. Therefore, similar to Operation Defensive Shield, we must cleanse the area of all types of threats and collect all weapons. In places where the local population actually assists terrorism, we must carry out a more severe deterrence than harming the workplace, or any such limited punishment. We must create an equation according to which an environment that supports terrorism has no right to exist.
At the same time, just as we acted after Defensive Shield, we must ensure a Palestinian fabric of life in a population that is not involved in or encourages terrorism in practice. Indeed, most residents of Judea and Samaria belong to this group.
On the eve of the Six-Day War, three paratroopers were killed by a mine on the Patrol Road in the Judean Desert. The IDF launched a covert operation, at the end of which it blew up dozens of houses in the village. This action created significant deterrence and reluctance for Palestinians to cooperate with terrorism.
The Israeli judicial system also does not assist the IDF in its action – from delaying Prime Minister Rabin's attempt to deport 415 terrorists to Lebanon, to the prohibition of the "neighbor procedure," and all sorts of other court decisions that weaken the IDF's ability to defeat and deter terrorism.
A riot by Jewish youth, which includes throwing stones at Palestinians, burning vineyards and harming passersby, is harmful and immoral: harmful, because it expands the circle of hatred of people who are not involved in terrorism, and it requires the IDF to invest forces in maintaining order in order to express our governance on the ground; And immoral, for we are commanded in our Torah: "A man in his sin shall be put to death" (Deuteronomy 24:16). In war, innocent people are sometimes injured unintentionally, but this task is on the IDF – the "people's army" – to act broadly and comprehensively, but not on any of us as individuals.
In the book of Genesis, Jacob said to Simon and Levi in Nablus, "And you have cut me off to shame me." Although the text reinforces their work by saying that "God shall martyr all the cities around them," sometimes collective punishment is necessary in order to carry it out, as Shimon and Levi did in Nablus, and there is room for political consideration of "shaming me," but the action must be carried out by the army - the people's army. In the first moments after a murderous attack, the blood boils, and the role of the leaders is to calm the anger and the desire for revenge, and to direct the youth to continue planting on the Mount. Decision makers should strengthen the army and enable it to act in the spirit of what is written here.
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