The deadly terrorist attacks in Beersheba, Hadera, and Bnei Brak and the open involvement in some of them of Arab Israelis teaches us one thing: with all due respect to cocktails, summits, conference, and summits, the most serious problem facing Israel recently is here at home.
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The Israel Police and security establishment prepared for Land Day, which has the potential to create a wave of unrest. Unlike the attacks in Beersheba and Hadera, the terrorist behind the Bnei Brak shooting came from the West Bank – a fact that rattled the conception that perhaps all the attackers could be part of a local plot by some Islamic State supporters. The fact that the Bnei Brak attacker was Palestinian who came from the West Bank blew that theory out of the water.
On Tuesday, some voices in the police leadership were already arguing that Israel was on the brink of the worst wave of terrorism in years. Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall. For some time now, the police have been warning that the security barrier is as full of holes as a slice of Swiss cheese, but nothing was done to patch them. Again, the police were made responsible, knowing that the job was too big for them. Meanwhile, the Shin Bet security agency failed to supply intelligence.
There was no precise intelligence about any of these three attacks. It's already clear that this was no local plot or a lone terrorist, but essentially suicide attacks. But this time, two of the three terrorists, and possibly the people who aided them, were Arab Israelis. This creates additional complexity for the top of the security and defense apparatus.
The Shin Bet is responsible for thwarting terrorism. Throughout the years, the organization focused on terrorist attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip or Judea and Samaria, and the police were held responsible for handling the Arabs in Israel, even though they weren't able to collect intelligence on terrorist activity. We've seen the result of this neglect this past week.
The government must restore safety to our streets. For that to happen, we need a small, effective Shin Bet and a large, smart Israel Police force – which is currently short some 4,000 officers.
Luckily, despite the burden of their missions, police do not hesitate to put their lives in danger to protect us.
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