On Sunday, two murderers left Umm al-Fahm with guns and more than a thousand bullets in their bags. They reached Hadera and launched a killing spree against Jews. On Tuesday, a bloodthirsty murderer came from a village near Jenin, and after receiving a rifle and ammunition from accomplices in Israel, embarked on a killing spree against Jews in the streets of Bnei Brak. These murderers and their accomplices are Israelis who are free to move anywhere they want in the country; they don't even have to cross the hole-ridden security fence. The Shin Bet failed to spot them in time.
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The alarm bells rang as loudly as possible during Operation Guardian of the Walls, signaling the collapse of civilian security. The soldiers fought on the borders, while inside the country, on the home front, we faced unbridled riots by the Palestinians in Israel, who were part of the campaign. The Shin Bet failed at the time to provide a warning and left the home front exposed and defenseless, and today it failed in its objective to provide security in the face of terrorist mobilization aimed at sowing chaos everywhere possible.
It's not the job of the police commissioner to cope with Palestinian terrorist cells in Israel. For years now, the Israel Police has contended with a loss of control against the rise of Palestinian criminal organizations, which run their towns and villages as autonomous entities beyond the reach of the central government. The Shin Bet's argument that a distinction must be made between terrorist cells under its purview and the criminal organizations and the weapons caches they possess, which are civilian and police matters, shows that the Shin Bet has completely lost its grasp of reality. The Shin Bet needs a good shaking, must examine itself deeply, and mainly it needs its parameters to be redefined, which will allow it to apply the full weight of its power on identifying and disrupting terrorist activity among the Palestinians in Israel.
The Shin Bet's method of detecting terror cells is known: It operates a dense network of secret wiretapping and surveillance, questions suspects, makes administrative arrests, recruits collaborators and informants, and always updates its assessments as to where the greatest dangers lie. It should also be tasked with vetting Arab Israelis working in sensitive positions in the public sector.
To help his agency quickly restore quiet, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar requested approval to demolish the homes of the Israeli murderers and accomplices. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, however, reportedly opposes such a measure as he believes it could ignite a broad conflagration or, it must be said, tear apart his government. It seems the violence already ignited in Bnei Brak, Hadera, and Beersheba isn't enough to sway the pendulum.
The significance of the Shin Bet applying its force to detect terror cells and monitor the illegal weapons caches in the hands of criminal organizations in Arab communities is de-facto returning to adopting the fundamental elements of the military rule imposed on the Arabs of Israel between the years 1948-1966. The military government's regulations allowed for the confiscation of property and demolition of structures, the expulsion of residents, the restriction of movement without a permit, and mainly for the Arabs to be closely monitored. The problem is that although it's easy to implement this governmental measure, it will take many years to restore the trust to the point where it can be scaled back and annulled.
Any moves to buttress the Border Police with reinforcements and raise alert levels are also important in strengthening the deteriorating sense of security among Israeli citizens. However, such measures have nothing to do with actually stopping terrorist cells from committing their murderous acts. This activity is solely the mission of the Shin Bet. After all, even MK Mansour Abbas, the main pillar of the Bennett government, called several months ago for greater Shin Bet involvement against the crime in Palestinian society in Israel.
One final note: These are not easy days for any Jew. Eleven dead and dozens wounded in a short period of time. Even in these tough times, however, we must silence and banish those who chant "death to Arabs." We must remember that the majority of Arabs are innocent and law-abiding and that they are also suffering at the hands of those who use terror and murder as tools.
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