Calling for Stronger Action: Irresponsible?

November 29, 2015

2 min read

David Rubin

I wrote an article recently, calling on Minister Naftali Bennett to end his disturbing silence about the horrific security situation in Israel. As one who knows that stronger actions are needed to stop the terror wave, I was troubled by his silence. Just nine days later, I am happy to see that Bennett is speaking out again, advocating for a strong, offensive military operation similar to Israel’s Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.

Not surprisingly, the political cowards in the defense establishment are already launching vicious personal attacks against Bennett, calling him “a messiah claimant” and “an inciter”, adding that Bennett’s criticism is “irresponsible”.

The reality is that Mr. Bennett’s demand for stronger offensive measures was very reasonable, a fulfillment of his responsibility as a public servant. His job is to boldly raise important issues for national discussion.

What were blatantly out of bounds were the snide, hateful personal attacks on Bennett, a member of the Security Cabinet. Using a pejorative such as “messiah claimant” is a poorly-veiled attempt to avoid responding to the security challenges faced by ordinary Israelis, by crudely implying that a religious Israeli cannot rationally analyze the situation.

The truth is quite the opposite. It is the anonymous defense officials who are irresponsible, and they should be firmly put in their places, by their boss, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. Perhaps then, they can put their focus where it belongs, on providing security for Israel’s citizens. As for Ya’alon, it would be prudent for him to read up about Operation Defensive Shield, which was a comprehensive assault on the Islamic terrorist organizations throughout Judea and Samaria. Thousands of weapons were seized and hundreds of terrorists were eliminated, thereby preventing many future attacks. Furthermore, vast quantities of documents were seized from the Mukata, the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah, thereby proving its complicity in financing and inciting the terror war on Israel.

Despite the feeble claims by the defense establishment, the circumstances now are not so different than what was in 2002. Unless the defense officials quoted above are living in a bubble, or perhaps in some fantasy play land, they must have noticed that in the past two months, there have been daily, and often hourly terrorist attacks on Jewish Israelis of all ages, ethnic groups, and religious persuasions. These attacks, most likely orchestrated from above, have been on a scale that has not been seen since the horrible period of 2000-2005. The tentative, defensive steps taken to date are obviously not enough, and the time has come to examine and implement serious offensive measures that will put an end to the terror wave once and for all. A full-scale military operation in Ramallah, Shechem, and Hebron, including a massive assault on the entire Palestinian Authority infrastructure would be a very good start.

Reprinted with author’s permission from Israel National News

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