The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement.
A terrorist recognized as a President who accuses Israel of carrying out “50 Holocausts”; Security and government personnel involved in hostile sabotage activity; Attacking and murdering Israeli civilians and Jews receive extensive support and encouragement under the auspices of the hostile government; Wild and widespread incitement pervades every official institution and street corner without interruption; Occupation of homeland territories through illegal construction and destruction of heritage sites; A call to act against Israel from every stage in the world and aid to its enemies beyond its borders… Is this an enemy or a legitimate partner? Could it be that one side (the weaker actually) insists on seeing the other as an enemy while the other (the stronger) insists on seeing it as a partner? Who is sane here and who is delusional? Who lives and knows the reality in the Middle East, and who is living in a dream world?
As part of Operation “Breaking Dawn” that was carried out in the Gaza Strip between August 5 and 7, Israel attacked terrorist targets of the Islamic Jihad and avoided hitting Hamas targets. The latter, for its part, is happy that Israel is eliminating some of its enemies within, after it had already eliminated its main enemies very effectively and efficiently by itself in the same number of days of fighting between June 12 and 14, 2007, in what is known as the “Palestinian Civil War”, a violent and brutal move in which Hamas forcibly took over Gaza Strip and made the Fatah organization and the Palestinian Authority (the “PA”) clearly irrelevant. At the same time as what was happening in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority pursued, and is still pursuing, Hamas in the territories of Judea and Samaria in order to restrict its choices of action, mainly under the auspices and assistance of the IDF and mainly the GSS (the General Security Service, the internal security arm of the Israeli government).
From 2007 until today, it seems that the Hamas organization is maintaining its stability in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria has lost some of its power. It is wallowing in its corruptions and internal struggles, faltering and dying like its leader but remains protected, sedated and is on life support thanks to the Israel Defense Forces. And all of this is after the Palestinian Authority voluntarily absolved itself of the right to handle security issues that undermine its status as an exclusive entity recognized at the international level.
The IDF and the GSS remain the main and exclusive guardians and breathers, on behalf of the Israeli government, of the Palestinian Authority headed by Abu Mazen who long ago lost control over the mechanisms, agreements and more. The IDF, which has been carrying out arrests every night for years, which have been intensifying lately since “Operation Breakwater” began, has replaced the corrupt, inefficient, and dual-interested PA mechanisms that wish to receive a fixed salary and official recognition as the leaders of the struggle against Israel, without taking risks or being considered as collaborating with Israel.
Israel as an enemy of the Palestinian Authority
The government of Israel practically exempts the PA from almost any responsibility for what happens on its territory, actions that have fatal, serious and destructive consequences for the State of Israel and its citizens; actions that, if committed against it by any other political entity, would be considered acts of hostility and even grounds for war; actions that for some reason Israel contains, absorbs or ignores them, such as severe and unceasing incitement against the State of Israel and Jews that begins in the educational institutions, in mosques and in the media, continuing up to the head of the snake – Dr. Abu Mazen himself denies the Holocaust, illegal construction and takeover of Area C through construction and planting, the paving of unapproved roads and more, damage to natural and landscape assets through damage to fauna and flora as well as ecological damage with the opening of dozens of illegal quarries, discharge of sewage and pollution of the aquifer, destruction of Israeli national heritage sites and more.
Above all of these, the Palestinian Authority allows physical harm to Israeli citizens, encourages terrorism and is a declared supporter of its operations, without hesitation, reluctance or fear.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language defines an enemy as “a country, military organization, and the like that is in a state of war or in hostile relations with another country or military organization.” Although the Palestinian Authority is not a state and it is good that it is not, it is certainly a political entity. It may not be a military organization, but it meets the definition of “and the like” by having security mechanisms that are armed and organized as a de facto army.
The Palestinian Authority considers Israel to be an enemy by definition, according to any measure and common sense, while Israel’s leaders refuse to recognize this and cling to the fragments of the apparent imaginary peace that resulted from the largely expired Oslo Accords. Israel’s leaders are clinging to the remains of the PA and the last breaths of the terrorist who heads it, as if it were a great bargain with the potential for salvation, prosperity and flourishing, instead of recognizing them as an enemy that constitutes its failure and therefore requires a decision.
The Authority sees Israel as a de facto enemy because it has absolved itself of a significant and substantial part of its obligations appearing in the clauses of the agreements with it, does not make an effort to implement them and is afraid to confront those whose actions violate them. It does not invest its trained forces in curbing terrorism, and there are those trained also for this purpose by the US and other forces, but on the contrary – it incites and stirs up the flames with all its might and with every means at its disposal, while expressing open and direct support for the perpetrators of murderous attacks and giving extensive assistance to their family members of the “heroic” martyrs and prisoners who massacred families in their homes and harmed civilians traveling innocently on the roads.
While the PA behaves as an enemy entity and in its actions “demands” Israel to accept such apparent status; in Israel, people adamantly refuse to acknowledge the bitter reality and try to avoid such a declaration, to cover up the harsh reality and to apparently transmit messages that “the majority is in order and in control”.
If not, how can the “hushed-up terror” be explained? Events that include dozens of stone throwing incidents and harassment of Jews every day, which do not appear in the monthly statistics that the GSS constantly publishes, alongside other serious events that do not grab headlines in the news programs. Why does throwing a stone at a family’s car while it is driving not receive equal treatment to the attempted murder of a woman or at the very least, a shooting attack that was carried out unsuccessfully? After all, everybody knows that even a stone can kill just as well as a bullet from a gun.
In order to stimulate your thoughts and open your eyes to the data, it is enough that you try to remember the number of events of terrorism that happened in the last two months throughout Judea and Samaria and how many of them did you hear about or were reported in the media? According to the GSS report in June, there were zero (0) stone-throwing attacks in the Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem sector, compared with a single attack in July. So what is all the fuss about? Because the GSS only lists stone-throwing attacks which involved people wounded moderately and above. What does this look like? Shooting at an innocent citizen where the bullet scratched him slightly and therefore it can be ignored. This, in contrast to the other attacks included in the report, such as the throwing of Molotov cocktails, the number of which in June was 117 and in July was 75, the throwing of 42 pipe bombs in June compared with 27 in July, 11 incidents of small arms fire in June compared with 15 in July, 16 incidents of arson in June compared with 12 in July and two events of stabbing in each of these months.
Does the PA work to bring peace and strengthen the security and well-being of the Arabs in its territory, or is it engaged in hostilities against Israel so that it can exist with zero effort and at an adequate level of corruption, which will prolong its life as much as possible?
Summary and recommendations
The PA is in a difficult situation and its leadership is in a little more than that. The main actions of the Authority and its leader are aimed at preserving what little is left of their status, honor and property, before they change and / or pass away from the world.
The next Israeli government should recognize the Palestinian Authority as a hostile entity, or simply – as an enemy, just as it behaves and conducts itself above any possible stage, in words and in actions, towards the State and its Jewish citizens who are attacked in their cities, while traveling on the main roads and whose judgment is passed if somebody unfortunately made a mistake and entered one of the villages, until it proves otherwise.
Since this is the way things are, and since we should not expect help and salvation from the leaders of the PA and its security mechanisms, who were armed in the past by the courtesy of our generous government, a series of significant moves have to be made, ones that will make it clear to everyone who is the sovereign and ruler of the Chosen Land, and what will be the sentence of anyone who dares to harm the Jews in their homeland, which is their only home and fortress in the world.
Among the steps that must be demanded from the next government: the application of real sovereignty over territories, including the Jewish settlement blocs in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley; the restoration of governance in Area C, which includes the establishment of new Israeli settlements; recognizing and extending the grip and control over Israel’s heritage sites and preventing damage to them, such as the Altar of on Mount Ebal and Joseph’s Tomb, which constitute an essential layer in understanding the deep and strategic significance of what National Security is; attacking every armed terrorist, by any means available to our forces, deep in Arab territory and in accordance with the security concept moving the fighting to the territory of the enemy and taking early preventive steps against any trouble;
cutting out any mention and destroying any website or infrastructure that glorifies and praises “martyrs” – terrorists who murdered Jews; stopping the terrorist funds and support transferred from Israel and the human rights-loving world to the Palestinian Authority, which are used for incitement, for salaries to terrorists and which are transferred to the families of the “martyrs” and prisoners in Israeli prisons;
restoring deterrence and carrying out acts of retribution and deterrence in every Arab village from which terrorists came out or from which terrorist acts are carried out on a regular basis against Jews. For example, the “Russian Roulette” that involves traveling on the roads of Judea and Samaria must be stopped immediately, even at the cost of cutting down orchards and demolishing greenhouses and buildings that overlook the route and enable the throwers of stones and Molotov cocktails to hide, so that the IDF forces can better identify them and thwart them before they carry out their plot. It is worth asking why it was possible to stop the traffic in the Gaza Strip for fear of a missile being fired at an Israeli vehicle and many IDF forces were prepared and even attacked the terrorists, while every day Israeli vehicles and civilians are threatened and injured by those assassins on the roadsides of Judea and Samaria and by those terrorists who come out of the nearby villages. Is a vehicle that is hit by a rock that injures its occupants or causes the driver to lose control and commit a fatal accident, any different from a missile or sniper fire that achieves the same result in the end?
To conclude: if it thinks like an enemy, talks like an enemy, acts like an enemy – it is an enemy! And regarding the well-known cliché that “we talk with the enemy” – then such a thing is done when he voluntarily lays down his weapon and changes his ways for some of the time, or after he has been defeated.
