In order to understand how much they have worked on us over the past week in Jenin, it is important to go back in time. About a year before the outbreak of the Oslo Accords, at the end of 1992, I made a trip to the Black Panther Organization of northern Samaria. This area, together with the Jenin refugee camp, functioned as a semi-kingdom of terror only about a year prior to my visit, during the first intifada. In order to enter the villages in the Jenin area, an armored brigade team was needed, which would also encounter Molotov cocktails and gunfire.
Only on the eve of the Oslo Accords, I entered the village of Araba in Samaria without warning in an unarmored car with a yellow number. There I met the beaten remains of Black Panther operatives, who were still fleeing the long hand of the IDF. Because in 1991-1990 the IDF finally took off its gloves and began hunting down the terrorists. He stopped signaling and sending messages and began eliminating terrorism and terrorists. Therefore, on the eve of the Oslo Accords, there was no terror or intifada in northern Samaria and Judea and Samaria. Only the introduction of the PLO into the territory by the geniuses of Oslo devoured everything.
In March 2002, after the peace between Rabin and Peres yielded rivers of blood, the IDF entered the Jenin refugee camp as part of Operation Defensive Shield. True, even then, they felt sorry for cruelty and therefore we suffered unnecessary casualties, but the IDF came to victory – to uproot and eliminate terror – and did it. What a shame that the disengagement and the continued cultivation of partners from the PLO thwarted, in time, the achievements of Defensive Shield as well.
Documentation of IDF activity in the Jenin refugee camp // Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Only this week the IDF did not come to uproot terrorism in the Jenin camp. With all the appreciation for the professionalism, courage and determination of the field echelons, senior IDF and government officials came to outwit us, not to win. Thus, contrary to the principle of surprise in the campaign, Israel notified the Palestinian Authority in advance of its intention to enter the camp, which warned all senior members of the terrorist army who had fled the camp before the first soldier entered. Therefore, only 13 very young terrorists, who did not understand the name of the game, were eliminated, while all the senior officials and most of the weapons carriers fled for a short time to the city of Jenin itself.
Yet the IDF and Shin Bet did not even try to chase and eliminate any of them outside the camp. After all, the objective of the operation was not to fundamentally damage the terrorist infrastructure, which consists first of all of the terrorists themselves, but to broadcast to the Israeli public pictures of determination and action. Appearance instead of action, in the pathetic hope that the terrorist army of Samaria will also be impressed by it. There is nothing like the anti-military image of IDF soldiers standing at the entrance to the camp to illustrate what the IDF really did there: a picture instead of a victory.
Courtesy of Partner
The root of the folly that led to this week's missed operation stems from heartlessness and the perception that the Palestinian Authority and only it will do the job for us. It is she who will now raise the stick and calm the terror in Samaria, and therefore it must be preserved and strengthened. Only, as usual, the facts point to the exact opposite. Thus, if there is one certain achievement of this week's events, it is actually the weakening of Mahmoud Abbas' rule. It is no coincidence that this week two senior PA officials were thrown out of the funerals of those killed with cries of "traitors out."
Instead of fulfilling the responsible role assigned to them by Israel and the United States, the senior partners from Ramallah tried to prove, in response to Palestinian accusations of treason, that they were leading the terror against the Zionist enemy. Among other things, they published a list of 23 terrorists killed in recent months, boasting that they were part of their apparatuses. The PA also fought to correct publications claiming that all the dead terrorists belonged to Islamic Jihad troops, and insisted that some of them were Fatah members.
Israeli occupation and occupation of the PA? Mahmoud Abbas, photo: Reuters
The partner's pride in the significant part he is taking in terror against us is astonishing, but true. Indeed, many of those in uniform in the apparatuses are officers by day and terrorists by night. It is not for nothing that Ziad Nahaleh, secretary general of Islamic Jihad, admitted in an interview this week that his organization is arming Fatah members on Iran's orders, and demands that they remain in the ranks of the PA and take part in terrorism. The anti-Israeli rhetoric of Abbas and his people leads to action, not just talk and incitement.
On the tactical level, weapons were destroyed this week and weapons were confiscated, demonstrating that the IDF can enter the Jenin camp, unlike Gaza. But nothing substantive has been done against the enemy and terrorism. This will happen only when Oslo's way of thinking fundamentally changes, only when the IDF is again ordered, as in 1991, to uproot the enemy, including the one in Ramallah.
Rediscovering Israel
I took a few days, last week, to be a tourist in Israel, on the occasion of the visit of non-Jewish friends from Great America. I put on the tourist's glasses for a moment, and what was said - it is highly recommended. Because when you lift your head from the arguments and controversies in which we poison our lives and look around, it's just hard to believe. What we have to present and offer, what we have achieved and will achieve if we do not destroy with our own hands, is beyond imagination. Every casual tourist exposed to the picture marvels and marvels.
Let's start with Jerusalem, which is maligned and polarized, unparalleled in abundance and interest. We wandered through the new exhibit at the Tower of David and the Western Wall Tunnels, the bustling markets full of tourists in the Old City and Mahane Yehuda. We visited the Israel Museum and Ein Kerem. We have rediscovered a city that never stops renewing, and there is no end to beauty and content. And the guests - they found it difficult to digest the unparalleled combination in the world - between old and new, between history and present and future.
Tower of David. To be exposed to the wonder, photo: AP
We went down to the strange and unique Dead Sea, which especially fascinates those who come from outside, coming from Masada and Ein Gedi. And then north to the fascinating ruins of Beit She'an, the refreshing Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights above. This is the north that has become a tourism, travel and wine powerhouse. From the mounds and Mount Hermon, through the bustling Kibbutz Ein Zivan, the Ram Pool, Qalat Nimrod and endless sights and interest. Then the Galilee, Acre and Nazareth, the Bahai Gardens in Haifa, and of course Tel Aviv. The city is known worldwide as a center of entertainment, parties and high-tech, but surprises its guests with its wonderful beaches, not to mention opera, music and culture.
The sights and events are accompanied by an extraordinary soundtrack of depth - the Bible and the New Testament, history and archaeology so unique. Wherever you look, there is a story and a pedigree. From the Gilboa Mountains that pass along the way, where Saul and his sons fell, through the stories of Jesus' miracles on the Sea of Galilee, and above all Jerusalem, from King David to the Temple, and on and on, there is no end to the layers. And we didn't mention the technological achievements and innovation, and the varied, deliciously delicious Israeli food. Food that amazes anyone who is not used to it on a daily basis.
It is incredible what a few days of unbiased gaze on our streets do, a look that reveals a fascinating country, a civilized and blooming country. How important it is to take perspective from time to time, as if from the sidelines. Get proportions, maintain sanity, not to mention a dose of national pride.
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