On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, it is time to take stock of what has unfolded so far. The ongoing Zionist revolution is one of the few from that era that have actually succeeded in effecting change in a radical way all the while constantly evolving to the emerging challenges.

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It transformed the Jewish people and saved it from gradual dissolution into a group of Orthodox zealots and a fringe of assimilating Jews. It brought the Jewish people back into history as a nation that could stand on its own two feet and shape its future.

The lay of the land at the outset had many obstacles that were seemingly insurmountable. After all, the vision included the establishment of national sovereignty for the Jews without meeting the pre-requisites: a functioning people, a national living language, and a concentration of Jews in the desired land. On top of that, there was active opposition to this effort by the locals. 

A majority of the Jewish people were not an active part of this revolutionary vision. Only a small minority, including among its many supporters, were willing to step up to the plate and take action. The majority of rabbinical leaders opposed it and some of them even rejected the idea of returning to Zion, saying this was akin to blasphemy. 

Most of the Jews who did gradually take up this cause were unwilling to have skin in the game. The Zionist accomplishment is unique not because it overcame external opposition from the Palestinians or the world, and not even because it managed to convince a small cadre of determined idealists. Its stellar success is rooted mainly in that it managed to convince Jews that had been attracted to it for non-Zionist reasons to convert their passions into real Zionist fervor that made pre-state Israel a reality that would eventually become a viable and strong national homeland.

An overwhelming majority of the Jews who live in Israel are those who arrived here because of necessity, not because of their Zionism. They could not stay in their home countries, and upon leaving, they could not reach the destinations they had sought. The ultimate test Israel faced ー its Zionist test ーwas to integrate them despite the many hardships they faced and to convince them and their descendants to stay here by choice and make it their home. 

The challenges that lie ahead

By far, the most important accomplishment of the Zionist movement was its success in making Israel the home to the largest amount of Jews (close to a majority of Jews live in Israel) and making it ー almost from scratch ー the place where the continuation of Jewish peoplehood is guaranteed. Thanks to this enterprise, the Jews returned to their historical homeland as a functioning people, their national language was revived and their historic sovereignty was applied.

The bridgehead established by a minority with a radical vision in the Land of Israel became the vibrant center of Jewish life. What began two generations ago as a third-world, poor, and weak country that had only 6% of the Jews, transformed thanks to the dedication and talent of later generations into a regional democratic power with a thriving economy and top-notch accomplishments. 

More important than the successes of the past are ensuring gains down the road. It is almost inevitable that Israel will continue to be the focus of Jewish life at the expense of the second most important Jewish concentration ー North America. The widespread assimilation in younger generations, coupled with declining birth rates, compared with almost zero mixed-marriages in Israel and a very high birth rate ensures that Israel will be the epicenter of Jewish life. 

The major challenges within Israeli society are much more dangerous than the threats posed by Iran and its proxies. Israel has a successful track record of weathering through tough times, just like after the Yom Kippur War and the Second Intifadah. What should worry us is the radicalization of some Haredi groups and the continued control over millions of Palestinians. Those two trends threaten the democratic and pluralistic nature of the Zionist enterprise that have made it so successful over the past 100 years. Without them, Israel will devolve into a backward, authoritarian state that could threaten the future of the Jewish people. 

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It's important to have a grasp of what Israel and the Palestinians are fighting over in the Gaza Strip. And I am not talking about the solution, because is none, nor am I talking about the prospects of a long-term political arrangement, which never fail to dash our hopes. I am not even talking about any long-term deterrence, because in Gaza, any deterrent effect is always shortlived. The real issue at stake is the Arab and Palestinian solidarity with those who seek an armed conflict with Israel. 

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Israel has historically been able, after a lengthy and painful process, to isolate radicals and break this solidarity. When radicals are no longer mainstream, Israel can ignore them or attack them without much consequence. When they manage to drag other Muslim, Arab or Palestinian elements into a confrontation with Israel, the threat they pose increases many times over, forcing Israel to expend many more resources that would have otherwise gone to other causes. Breaking the pan-Arab solidarity has prevented a large-scale war between Israel and ar Arab countries for almost five decades and has led to the positive development of having a thriving Israel increasingly integrate into the region as a Middle Eastern power.

The battle in Gaza is over the hearts and minds. What Hamas tried to do in Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021 and what the Palestinian Islamic Jihad tried to do in the most recent flare-up is to rally the Arabs in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, and Israel to join the violent struggle championed by the radical elements against the Jewish state. Those extremists want to secure their position as the leaders of the Palestinian people and cast themselves as the defenders of the Palestinian people and Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Islam who can deter the Jews by means of rocket fire.

The Palestinians want a violent leadership that could inflict pain on Jews and kill them, as well as humiliate Israel. These are the contemporary role models for the Palestinians. Israel wants calm and is willing to go a long way to avoid flare-ups. Had Israel been deterred from confronting the rioters on Temple Mount or the terrorists in Jenin and the agitators in mixed cities and the south, the PIJ and Hamas would have obtained their goal. 

In the latest round of hostilities, Israel has appropriately opted not to fall for the addictive allure of calm, choosing instead to forcefully dismantle this strategic paradigm. Jews went up the Temple Mount and Israel continued to carry out its targeted killing of senior terrorists in the West Bank. Would-be Israeli Arab rioters got the message: If they disturb the peace in mixed cities, they would face ten battalions ready to confront them. In other words, Israel proved that those who show violent manifestations of their solidarity with terrorists in Gaza will pay a heavy price. 

What's left is just the leaders of the Joint Arab List who continue with their old refrains. Let them continue with their blabbering nonsense. The more they continue exposing their true deceitful nature and lowliness, the more Israelis will be inclined to turn away and ignore their whines.

We face a long, often frustrating, battle. But Operation Breaking Dawn has helped move us closer, thanks to another form of solidarity: that of the Israelis to each other. 

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While the public in Israel is looking at what is going on at home – Palestinian terrorist, the political crisis, and Arabs running amok in mixed cities – the international arena is undergoing an upheaval that will affect our own region and the room Israel has to maneuver. These are the shockwaves and aftershocks of the Ukraine war, which is leading western democracies to make new preparations in light of what they have learned about Russian aggression.

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The most notable event in this drama is Finland and Sweden's decision to join NATO. This reflects a fundamental acknowledgement that democracies have to defend themselves like Spartans against those who see their Athenian ways as weakness that is asking for aggression and conquest. There is nothing new in admitting that open societies are vulnerable: the choice of openness reflects a willingness to opt for the flexible resilience of social and political pluralism over barricaded rigidity. But recently, the extent of the authoritarian forces' aggression and audacity have been exposed as they try to bring down these open societies, as has the need to outflank them by patrolled borders to protect the "soft" underbelly of the liberal way of life. In a certain sense, this is a welcome swing away from the "Swedish" western European model to the Israeli model, which combines stringent force against enemies with tolerant openness at home.

This trend calls to mind the "defensive democracy," a lesson learned after the Nazis took control of the Weimar Republic. The main principle is to outlaw elements that spurn the "rules of the game" of democratic regimes to prevent hostile takeovers through these same rules being perverted. This strategy of defense challenges the tendency to reject any limits to pluralism under the argument that the meaning of the term is a lack of limits. The tragic attempt proved the need to outlaw the Nazis in order to preserve German democracy.

The Europeans have recently discovered that two elements that reject pluralism per se – an authoritarian superpower and a patriarchal, aggressive culture – pose a threat to the free, open way of life on the continent. The superpower is Putin's Russia, and the culture is one that is embraced by many of the Arab, Pakistani, Afghan, and other Muslim immigrants who came by the millions and gained a foothold in Europe without trying to integrate into its system of values. This is where, they realized too late, "defensive democracy" is needed against foreign players who come into those democracies.

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For years, Russia has been waging two kinds of war on open societies: in the cyber sector, which aims to bring down belief in pluralistic society and democratic rule; and a consistent attempt to get Europe hooked on Russian energy. The strategic reality is clear, but most political leaderships and elites opted to delude themselves and deny its ramifications.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder betrayed his people and western civilization when he opened the door to Russian gas, and as soon as he stepped down received enormous payments from Putin for leading Europe's ongoing capitulation on that matter. The chancellor who came after him and misled her voters by her cautious, responsible image, opened the gates to Europe to over 1 million immigrants, most of whom espouse a culture that endangers the open and pluralistic lifestyle as well as to ever-increasing dependence on Russian gas, which funded Putin's corruption, autocracy, and wars.

It took Europe mass killings, 6 million people who fled their country and another 8 million internally displaced to realize that it was at war. Only now is it willing to forgo the economic advantages (cheap gas and ridiculously low expenditure on defense) and its humanist image in the media and among the irresponsible elite, which took the form of allowing immigrants indiscriminate entry. Only now is Finland realizing that there is no place for neutrality, even armed, even though it helped them against the Nazis.

It's as if in some parallel universe, the Europeans and the Biden administration continue to deny the severity of the Iranian threat, are willing to spend hundreds of billions (in lifted sanctions) to fund Iran's aggression and aspirations of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony in exchange for an absolutely worthless nuclear deal. Let us hope that the wake-up call from radical delusions of reconciliation can come without witnessing a world war.

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Palestinian terrorism, both among Israeli Arabs and emanating from the West Bank derives to a large extent from the erosion of deterrence since the Second Intifada. A new generation of Palestinians has arisen since the second intifada and the riots of October 2000. They did not experience for themselves what happens when the Jews understand the gravity of the danger facing them and decide to break, through the use of force, the will of Palestinian society to dispatch and support murderers.

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The terrorist who tried to enter the community of Tekoa and carry out an attack – just like the murders in Beersheba, Hadera, Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv; the rioters in Lod and Acre; the thugs on the roads of the Negev; and the hooligans at Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk are young people who didn't experience Operation Defensive Shield, which extinguished the second intifada and the forceful repression of the violent rampage by Arab Israelis during that period.

We are talking about a section of Arab society that is not familiar with the concept whereby cultured people "live and let live." What they are familiar with is that if they cease to fear the state and the majority they derive a sick satisfaction from the ability to impose fear and terror.

These factors can be repressed and deterred only through forceful means. "Searing of consciousness" as former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'aon put it during the second intifada was a concept that at the time was received with typical hypocritical criticism by the talking heads in the studios and the press. But thanks to that searing of consciousness for close to two decades any major outbreak of violence in the territories was prevented and there was coordination with the Palestinian security apparatuses.

Israel's firm response to the mass rioting of Arab citizens in October 2000 in support of the war of terror launched against the state prevented wider and more organized violence.  in addition to the hunt for and elimination of the terrorists themselves what is now required is an escalation and wider operations to hit the environment that supports terrorism. The elimination of Yahya Sinwar and Salah Arouri and their gangs is desirable at the appropriate operational opportunity but targeted killings do not in themselves ensure strategic gains.

The change must be perceptual: Hamas cannot be renumerated with protection money in Gaza while it instigates terrorism from the West Bank, Lebanon, and among Israeli Arabs. Jenin cannot receive economic benefits (entry permits for Israeli Arabs)  when it dispatched terrorists from its midst and operates as an exterritorial jurisdiction run by terrorists.  The main thing is to prevent anarchy from leaking into Israel.

A message must be sent that will resonate among young Arabs in Israel and cut short a trend that is gathering pace in front of our very eyes. Alongside the barbarity of the pogroms in Acre and Lod, which have received patriotic legitimization from the Arab leadership in Israel, recently, Arab youngsters have begun to impose fear on Jews for their perverse pleasure and to attack representatives of the state, its infrastructure, its institutions, and its symbols. They do this while documenting their rampages as they feel immune from the law. They behave in this way because on social networks a large part of the Arab community sees them as heroes and their deeds as emotional compensation for the justified feelings of inferiority.

If the Israeli law enforcement system fails to punish them severely and humiliate these hooligans, and if it does not show the Arab community, the grave, and ongoing damage that will be caused to them for many years, the State of Israel will find itself quickly facing an internal threat of dimensions that will require it to employ far more serious means against far greater numbers.

Video posted by the hooligans themselves shows how they broke into Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk, directed their gutter language at its residents, and showed open contempt for an armed security guard. They document for example how they provoked the police by driving wildly in front of a patrol vehicle;  riding their horses into a café, and other such provocations. They dare to behave so barbarically because they are aware of the pitiful state of Israeli law enforcement, from the police through to the state prosecutor's office and the judges themselves.

The police take pride in large operations but they have abandoned public spaces, while the state prosecutor's office. Layer If the state prosecutor's office violates its role by agreeing to inexplicable plea bargains, and the judges hand out ridiculously light sentences. It begins with the kind of violent rampages on Israel's roads that left the town of Arad isolated and continues with pogroms in mixed towns, and if it is not put down harshly, it will end with the loss of security for Jews in their lands and attempts to block IDF forces on their way to the front at times of war.

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Under the shadow of the justified concerns that terrorism will spread to more sectors, the main issue of the conflict between Israel and its radicalized enemies – on the Temple Mount, the Gaza Strip, in Beirut, in Jenin, in Umm al-Fahm and in the Negev – has been forgotten. The conflict is about the "rules of the game" when it comes to deterrence – who will force whom to bend to their will. Sometimes, there is a place for a short tactical compromise, on the condition that it leads to a painful and humiliating dictate.

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These enemies – Hamas, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, the hooligan rioters on the Temple Mount, the leaders of pogroms in mixed cities, and the lawbreakers in Wadi Ara and on the roads of the Negev – are aware that Israel is addicted to "quiet" and longs to reduce clashes.

Given this addition, they aspire to clone Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's success in Lebanon in deterring Israel from attacking his people in Lebanese territory, which allows his organization to gain strength, thus maintaining that deterrence. Some of them are able, to a large extent, to select their zone of conflict and time it at their own convenience, and even force Israel to help fund them and deepen their hold on their own people while they wage war. They depend on the absolutely ridiculous hope in the Kirya military headquarters and in Jerusalem that "full bellies hold violence in check." Hamas is instigating riots on the Temple Mount and using every tool in its belt to promote outbreaks of violence in the West Bank and inside the Green Line, while calmly building itself up in Gaza. Its status among the population of Gaza is based on the hefty funding Israel encourages, which comes directly from Qatar, and from the many Gazans who work in Israel. Hamas even manages to get Israel to release detained rioters, threatening to escalate the violence if it dares reduce the financial aid to its leadership.

Israel's other enemies are learning from Hamas' success. Even in the rogue Jenin sector, Israel doesn't withhold economic support for more than a few days at a time, for fear that economic distress in the capital of terrorism will "radicalize" the terrorists and their supporters who control the refugee camp and large parts of the city. In the rest of Israel, it isn't only the country's declared enemies in the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and Balad who are inciting and making threats. The mayor of the Bedouin town Rahat was clearly hinting at violence when he said that the "desecration of Al-Aqsa" [Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount] gave "legitimacy to a response" by Arab Israelis "from the north to the far south."

Israel is taking the correct course of action in its head-on battle against armed terrorism in Judea and Samaria and Gaza – conducting raids, arrests, and encounters with the violent actors themselves. It is also correct to compensate the innocent population in the PA with economic and other types of boons, when the PA works with Israel to contain the violence. In Gaza and the terror hotspots in Judea and Samaria, Israel has made a mistake in its painful continued use of "carrots," while rejecting the use of the heavy stick needed to punish and deter outbreaks of violence.

The threat from the heart of the country is worse than anything else. After last year's riots in mixed cities, which high-ranking Arab leaders supports, Israel needs to decide that any expressions of violence or hints at use of it or sympathy with it are politically out of bounds. When a violent culture makes a home in the heart of Arab society, simultaneously breaking out between clans on Negev highways, in mixed cities, and in rioting in support of the enemy, it needs to be addressed, by different means but equal determination, every place it exists – in Rahat and Umm al-Fahm, just like Gaza and Jenin.

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Israel's current measures and the responses of all previous governments to the seasonal eruptions of murderous Palestinian violence point to the recognition of the necessity for security forces to act to thwart terrorism in the heart of the population centers of a society that has become addicted to such violence.

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It transpires that even if their leaders and most of the Palestinian public are not interested in outbursts of terrorism, and are conscious of the resulting damage at both a personal and national level, the violent dynamics emanating from a radical core lead to uncontrollable turbulence.

Even though Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may be opposed to it and sometimes issues specific condemnations while his forces act in coordination with the IDF, he cannot disengage from the culture of violence and incitement that is deeply rooted in his society. Even when Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad threaten his regime, he does not dare act against their strongholds in Jenin because they have legitimization in Palestinian society as murderers of Jews. Even when he loses millions of dollars from Europe because of payments to terrorists and antisemitic school textbooks, he sanctifies the place of this barbaric tradition at the head of Palestinian national priorities. He believes, rightly so, that if he does not continue along this path and instead reaches a historic compromise with the Jewish state, he will lose his legitimacy as the representative of his people's aspirations.

In the Gaza Strip, there is not even a pretense that concern for the future of Palestinian children overrides the addiction to the desire to eliminate Israel. But lately, it transpires that even Palestinian citizens of Israel and their shameless leadership have interpreted the weakness of the police and the fact that the government of Israel is deterred from combatting the disturbances in the Negev as an invitation to violence. Mansour Abbas, who is trying to behave responsibly and conduct a dialogue with the Jewish public, will find it hard to stand up to the pressure of his voters and act against the provocateurs trying to bring him down.

Beyond the operative need to send Israel's security forces in large numbers into Palestinian population centers, this modus operandi also derives from a deep-rooted recognition. It reflects the grim conclusion that almost every Israeli in the centrist stream has reached, not necessarily consciously and sometimes despite vigorous denial, that the character of Palestinian society and how it chooses to educate its children remove any option, at least in the coming generation, for coexistence between two sovereign countries.

Because their society is addicted to violence and rules out any historic compromise, the Palestinians can be expected to use sovereignty to continue waging war against Israel and to seek the assistance of enemies near (for example, Syria) and far (primarily Iran) in this struggle. They also cannot be expected to rule responsibly over themselves and prevent radical forces. among them and in the region, from bringing disaster upon their people through terror and war, as they have done throughout the past 100 years since they were created as a people. This conclusion is accepted not only by proponents of a Greater Land of Israel and by the soft right that is not fully committed to this vision, but also by a broad majority of those who believe in a compromise and division of the land – with the exception of purist radicals.

When most of these proponents of compromise are asked to detail the measures they would take beyond noble principles, it transpires that the leaders of this camp are in fact speaking about a "state" with very limited sovereignty, not only with regard to the size of its armed forces, but also in the character and diversity of its engagements, control over its air and electromagnetic space, and what it will be allowed to import into its territory. It is no coincidence that Deputy Minister Yair Golan (Meretz) seeks permanent Israeli rule over parts of the Jordan Valley.

When Israel weighs its moves vis-à-vis the Palestinians in this current wave of terror, in its attempt to reach an ongoing accommodation and to calm events on the ground through economic measures and interim or permanent agreements, it must not ignore the lessons of previous generations – lessons we are witness to over Passover and Ramadan – it must maintain in its hands the ability to repress the serial violence that is bereft of any cost-benefit consideration of a responsible nation.

The provocateurs will drag, sooner or later, the majority and the leadership to violence even at the cost of heavy personal and national damage. Many of Israel's Arab citizens have been flirting lately with this behavioral pattern. If they adopt violence en masse, it will be it is important to respond harshly and with deterrence, as was the case in October 2000, and not as in May 2021. Until the next time.

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While the national attention is turned to terrorism, dramatic changes are taking place with regard to Israel and the strategic architecture of the Middle East. News outlets speak of the latest terror wave, without paying attention to the public debate about the fascinating opportunities opening up for Israel to strengthen its hold in the region and international status. The crux of the matter is Israel's maneuverability and freedom of action as a regional power, especially vis-à-vis the United States.

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Even some politicians, let alone shallow Western journalists and academics, have grown accustomed to confusing the country's great dependence on US aid with the concept that says this assistance is driven mainly due to sympathy for the Jews and efforts by the excellent pro-Israel lobby in Washington.
They assume that the fact that the "progressive" anti-Israel bloc has become very strong will greatly curtail our strategic maneuvering freedom, even when it comes to matters deemed as critical. Israel has become stronger, especially having recovered from the damaging consequences of the Oslo Accords, which paints a more encouraging picture.

About 30 years ago, Israel willingly gave up its international and regional status for the sake of peace with Palestinians. When the country came to its senses, it managed to integrate into a regional order detached from the need for the consent of its bitterest enemy.

This was made possible with the recognition of the determining factors in the Arab world of the resounding failure of the Arab Spring, the severity of the Iranian aggression, the depth of former US President Barak Obama's political folly, as well as that of current President Joe Biden, and Israel's credibility.

The first highlighted the Arabs' weakness; The second convinced of the existential threat Tehran poses and the need to defend against its regional hegemony; The third proved once again that Washington has become addicted to policies that support its enemies at the expense of its allies; the fourth showed Israel's strength and determination to fight Iran and its proxies. The combination of these four opened the door for Israel in the Middle East, allowing it to operate as a regional power.

We could, of course, speak about normalization, about finding a "solution" to the Palestinian issue and revisiting the degree of the West's sympathy for Israel. But a serious discussion requires a different perspective, one that focuses on Israel's most crucial regional challenge, the main obstacle to successfully tacking this challenge, and how to deal with this obstacle.

Israel also has to deal with its allies who have lost faith in the Biden administration. After Washington abandoned the region that faces a threat from Tehran, some of them blatantly ignored phone calls by the president and requests with regard to oil production, sanctions on Russia and human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia and Syria.

This alliance allows for greater maneuverability vis-à-vis the administration due to Israel's power and determination, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates' oil, gas and money, Egypt's legitimacy and overt and covert support of other Arab countries. Even Syria and Turkey understand the power of the axis and are trying to join.

It is a complex mixture of alliances and regional considerations. Of course, not all factors accept Israel as the leader, but it does maneuver well in the new arena. Although Israel needs US support, with time, even Washington will find it difficult to build on the ayatollahs despite its weakness and to push Israel and its many allies into a dangerous corner of reconciliation with Iranian aggression.

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A little perspective. In terms of Palestinian terrorism, nothing new or surprising happened last week. It was a spate of incidents. So on one hand, there is no need for a hysterical response, but on the other, it's good that the public responded with an uproar, because that is the only way to compel the Israeli government to act with the necessary responsibility in the mid and long terms, rather than the reckless addiction to temporary calm that is the result of a lack of political courage. In hindsight, it turns out that the rioters in Lod, Acre, and on the roads of Arad in May 2021, and the terrorists in Beersheba, Hadera, and Bnei Brak now, are forcing the government to deal with what it and its predecessors this past generation should have prevented through responsible policies.

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Palestinians have been indiscriminately killing Jews for over 100 years. Since the Palestinian people emerged, prior to any foundational event or after it – the establishment of the state of Israel, the 1967 Six-Day War, Oslo and Camp David, the Second Intifada, the disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Always: when the Palestinians are in distress and when they are flourishing; under the mufti, Yasser Arafat, and Mahmoud Abbas; in the midst of a peace process and when peace talks are frozen; under supportive US administrations and US administrations that ignored them; in the territories and inside the Green Line. Perpetrators of terrorism are ignorant and education, poor and well-off, religious and secular, Muslim and Christian, men, women, children, motivated by nationalism or by personal troubles, citizens of Israel, residents of Jerusalem, residents of Gaza, residents of the West Bank and the Bedouin sector.

Palestinians have an inherently high motivation for violence. It is a violent society, under Israeli rule and outside it, even toward its own. Murderers of Jews (shahidim) are the main role models, who are honored and financially rewarded based on the number of Jews they kill. This stems from the Palestinian national ethos, which describes a historical compromise (a retreat from the demand for "right of return") as a betrayal and sanctifies the "sacrifice" of preventing a violent struggle that will go on for generations. Only ongoing forcible prevention (the Shin Bet security agency and IDF thwart attacks based on high-quality intelligence) and deterrence can hold terrorism in check, combined with awareness of a critical blow to what happens to perpetrators of terrorism and those around them, as dealt by Operation Guardian of the Walls.

The absence of forcible prevention is perceived as helplessness, which invites violence. This is what happens when the government, for years, is afraid to take action against thousands of armed Bedouin rioters in the Negev, against agricultural crime, against protection schemes and against expressions of solidarity with the enemy in a time of war. It happens when in matters that pose a threat to leaders of society, courts impose absurd, not to say irresponsible, punishments and the prosecutorial authorities suggest scandalous plea bargains. The government also transfers billions to Arab local authorities without ensuring that the money won't be diverted to criminal organizations via the clans. Rather than dealing with eroding deterrence in a generation that has no memory of Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, Israel continues to accept vandalism of the security barrier and stops oversight over entry of hundreds of thousands of members of the people fighting against it. To "keep things calm," Hamas is being allowed to rebuild its strength after Guardian of the Walls so it can recover for the next conflict, while sending tens of thousands of laborers into Israel. The price of the addiction to the supreme goal of "calm today" is an incalculable eruption "the day after."

So it's good that the public is outraged. Not because of the 11 people killed, but because it is starting to lose faith in its governments. They have allowed the Bedouin the take over the Negev, the violent lawlessness in Arab society, and legitimization of terrorism among Arab citizens. The violent Arab society and political culture are mainly responsible for these perversions, but the government is responsible for suppressing violence.

Now we need to force the government to repair the security barrier, oust Palestinians in Israel illegally, forcibly put down Bedouin rioting – including the massive encroachment on state-owned land – and issue severe punishments to people who participate, for example, in mass events in Umm al-Fahm that identify with the murderers of two police officers on the Temple Mount in 2017. Legislators much make it clear to prosecutors and judges that their role is to protect victims of terrorism, not show empathy for the perpetrators. Honest Arab citizens, who want to integrate into society, will welcome this wholeheartedly.

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The meeting of foreign ministers of the US, Egypt, the UAE, Morocco, and Bahrain in Israel, along with the summit between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Emirati Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed and the open security and intelligence ties Israel maintains with a variety of Arab states are a reflection of a revolutionary strategic shift.

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In the broad historical context, Israel is institutionalizing its status as an important Middle East power. In the immediate, focused, context, these events are shaping an Israeli-Arab coalition after American policy lost its way in the region and the US caved to Iran. The challenge for Israel and its Arab allies is now to integrate the loss of whatever shred of faith in the Biden administration's strategic considerations remained with the recognition that at the end of the day, nothing can replace American support. They need to maneuver between controlling the damage of Biden's pacification in the short term and cooperating with the US going into the stage when Washington will have to recognize the inevitable failure of that pacification.

Every move is blatantly similar to Eisenhower's foolishness of 1956. Then, too, the American president failed to understand a radical anti-American Middle Eastern figure (Gamal Nasser) and allowed him to exert hegemony over the entire region and betrayed his close allies (Britain and France). When, as expected, his policy wound up strengthening the Soviet Union and crushing the West's stature in the region (through the fall of the Iraqi regime and the threat to pro-American elements in Jordan and Lebanon), not even the Eisenhower Doctrine could cause things to reverse direction. Only when the US came to its senses under Lyndon Johnson and the determined battle Nixon and Kissinger led saved the region from the damage, some 20 years later.

The difference this time is the power and determination of the regional allies. Israel is strong enough to lead the fight, despite the American capitulation to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps; the Arab allies are determined enough to let the Arab public know about their close security ties with Israel and recognize it as a leading regional power. All these allies are facing the same paradox: they are essentially fighting American policy amid a heightened understanding of their dependence on the US, on an admission from Washington that its regional policy has failed.

The hope that the American policy will be recognized as an impasse rests on two processes that are already beginning: the level of Iranian aggression and the willingness of members of the Arab-Israeli coalition to escalate their fight. Iran's contempt for the US can be seen in its attack on American forces in response to an Israeli strike and its demand that the US remove the IRGC from its list of terrorist entities. Israel knows that if it doesn't use force to prevent Iran from growing stronger, it will find itself encircled by ballistic missiles that will exact an unbearable cost in a war, while Iran will stay inviolable because of its nuclear threat. The Arabs are afraid that their ruling regimes will collapse and the Americans will do nothing other than murmur words of solidarity. Both they and Israel are aware of the need to and possibility of a move against the trend of restraint from Washington.

Israel has made it clear through announcements and military actions that it is not obligated to the nascent Iran nuclear deal. The Gulf states have sent out signals that the US leaving them to Iran's mercy is linked to their unwillingness to increase their oil output to mitigate prices. Arab states meet in Israel and announce that they are cooperating with it on military and intelligence matters. Their sister nations are evaluating the reactions in the Arab public, hoping to join the alliance. Needs and abilities dovetail: the Arabs need Israel's unique capabilities in the fields of intelligence, air defense, and ballistic missile defense, and Israel needs funding to increase its power and bases near Iran from which to operate.

The war in Ukraine has upended everything on the global scene and could lead to ties between the mullah regime, China, and Russia that will have a profound influence on events in the region. But it appears as if the Arab taboo on open ties between Israel and its neighbors has finally been broken. This connection completes the process of turning Israel into a full-scale regional power, not only in military, economic, scientific, and technological terms, but also in terms of its ability to maneuver and leverage these relations. The American policy on Iran is irresponsible, unsuccessful, and dangerous, but at least has pushed the Arabs into Israel's arms. 

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The serial tendency of the region's Arabs to complain and deny their role in their misery has found a new channel of late that touches on the war in Ukraine. The world is shocked by the suffering of the Ukrainian population, opening its arms to millions of its refugees, dealing blows to the economy of the Russian invader, and ostracizing its leaders. When it comes to the Arabs, however, the world denies their suffering, closes its gates to refugees, and avoids punishing the occupiers. The way the Arabs see it, this is a case of racist differentiation, as the Western reporters admit they are shocked by the suffering of "people like us."

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The disparity in the West and Israel's treatment of these is indeed conspicuous. It appears that the similarity in lifestyle and appearance of the victims of the violence and the refugees to that of their hosts makes empathy more forthcoming and explains this disparity to some extent. But the main difference the Arabs and their apologists deny and ignore with manipulative hypocrisy is the difference in the circumstances that created their plight and in their collective behavior.

The Ukrainians were conquered and forced into refugeedom because their predatory neighbor conspires to enslave their homeland. The Arabs and their ilk were conquered in recent generations usually as a result of their violence and were forced into refugeedom by barbaric civil wars waged to oppress their neighbors. In these wars, the weaker side, which would have oppressed others had they had the upper hand, were banished from their land. In both cases, there are many those who behave differently – Ukrainian criminals, as well as innocent Arab victims, do exist – but the West's treatment of the entire phenomenon cannot help but be dictated by the collective picture.

The determining factor in this treatment is future expectations based on past experience. The Ukrainian refugees are not expected to threaten the quality of life of the countries that have taken them in, to behave with unusual violence, to identify with their enemies, to maintain a lifestyle that is in opposition to important issues to the core values of society. The vast majority is expected to connect to the core values of the Western societies, maintain their uniqueness without challenging society, and gradually limit their reliance on welfare mechanisms. Some of them will integrate into their host countries and contribute to their welfare, while others will return to their country when able.

By contrast, a large portion of Arab immigrants to Europe brought with them the values and non-pluralistic lifestyles that wrought destruction on their homelands: violent behavior, a tendency toward mass, violent riots, the oppression of women, and the legitimization of terrorism.

Of course, this is not true of all Arab or Muslim immigrants, but such conduct is more common among them than other immigrant groups, and the severity of it is on the rise among those generations educated in Europe. So, for example, the police fears entering Muslim neighborhoods in Paris. In riots that spread throughout France in 2005, thousands of cars were set on fire. The publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed brought thousands out into the streets for violent riots, resulted in the murder of journalists, and forced many others into hiding in fear for their lives. There are common phenomena of radical sermons given in mosques, displays of antisemitism, attacks on Jews, and the oppression of women and the LGBTQ+ community.

While the absolute number enlisting in terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State is low, it sticks out in comparison to every other nationalist, religious, or ethnic group. In Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city, for example, this population rate reached levels that made it difficult for others, and Jews in particular, to live calm and secure lives.

The Arab writers ignoring these circumstances present the differentiation in treatment of various refugees as racism in a move symptomatic of one of the most difficult diseases afflicting Arab culture and politics: the refusal to take responsibility for their conduct and its consequences. The Palestinian public, which turns terrorists into exemplary figures and generously funds them and their families, is surprised when victims of that terror treat their sons as suspicious objects.

Immigrants among whom the oppression of women and the LGBTQ+ community, violence, mass riots, and the legitimization of terror are common are dumbfounded when they are not welcomed into pluralist societies. Immigrants from India are welcome in Britain. They have the highest employment rate and the lowest poverty rate of all minorities there despite not having blonde hair and blue eyes.

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