But they've forgotten to tell us that some of the rampant crime in the Arab sector hasn't been strictly criminal for a long time, and that at any moment it could slide into terrorist activity. They refuse to acknowledge their failure of leadership, which all these years has focused on the Palestinians' right to create a state at the expense of Israel. Now they are looking for someone to rescue them from this dire situation.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

For nearly five years, I served as head of a committee appointed by the government to manage a local council in a Bedouin village with a strong a history of cooperating with Israel to strengthen the country's northern border. That history has been forgotten in the heat of mafia-like protection schemes, clan infighting, and flare-ups of violence.

When I managed to make some changes to the way of life and school system in the area, the government chose to go back to its bad habits and allow petty politics to overtake the residents' right to live life with dignity. Instead of allowing the appointed committee to continue its work, the government chose to have an election there, which restored the status quo.

I've seen the Israel Police's futile attempts to fight armed criminals. That is what happens when the executive and judiciary branches do not prevent the theft of weapons and ammunition or eliminate the protection system that brings entire fortunes into the hands of criminals that were thieves yesterday, but might be terrorists tomorrow.

This threat can still be prevented, but it needs to be treated as an ongoing one. We can't conduct an operation, then leave. To eliminate this internal threat, the police, led by the new commissioner, must establish a task force similar to the Border Guards, one that has authority and military skills, and address this issue before it comes back to hit us and our property.

 Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Crime in Arab sector could morph into terrorism appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Former IDF Chiefs of Staff Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, in coordination with then-Defense Ministers Ehud Barak and Moshe Ya'alon, were willing to do almost anything to buy quiet, not, heaven forbid, security, or, God forbid, deterrence. They sufficed with a passive approach that relied on luck and the efficacy of the Iron Dome missile defense system. They consistently brought to the cabinet recommendations that resulted in an incorrect interpretation of the reality on the ground. And it seems this approach has now been adopted by our security forces. The continued transfer of suitcases of Qatari dollars to the Gaza Strip is a tailwind for Hamas. The policy of restraint that holds that "quiet will be met with quiet" is a display of weakness that Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranians interpret as permission to continue to plan their next joint attack.

Let us not be confused. Every moment that goes by without an Israeli offensive initiative allows Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip to train and grow more sophisticated in their efforts.  Taking a strong stance on Hamas requires an offensive initiative and the incessant pursuit of its civilian leaders and military commanders. If the heads of our security forces continue to advise the cabinet to work toward calm and transfer large sums of money, I recommend they be fired and that Israel's leaders find an available author or unemployed poet to sit and write what amounts to either a letter of surrender or a swan song for Zionism's historic chapter in the land of Israel. For too many years, we have lived with the illusion of peace and coexistence. The time has come to make certain we are not a fleeting episode in this land.

What we need from our leaders now is to take responsibility, not to authorize displays of power. Let us feel that we are setting the tone, let us have a taste of victory and let us lead normal lives. We no longer belong to a generation that must justify itself and embark on a defensive war.

In the contemporary Middle East, there is no room for concessions or compromise. We either take responsibility for our future or someone else will. Hamas and Hezbollah may not be an existential threat to the State of Israel, but they could be an existential threat to the lives of a few thousand of our residents. We are now in the home stretch, and there will be no second chance.

The post Losers always find excuses appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Those who purport to be civilian leaders must understand that the weapons that worked when it came to tunnels and rockets are irrelevant in a house of parliament, where one's finger rests on the voting buzzer and not the trigger of a gun.

To be honest, we senior military officials do not necessarily grasp the written and unwritten rules of the political playing field. IDF elbowing is unlike political intrigue, and military trickery does not prepare one for party busybodies. In practice, only those who have been successful politicians in the military can possibly succeed in surviving the Knesset and go on to become party leaders. Only someone who in their military service knew to say "X" but do "Y" has a chance at making it to the Prime Minister's Office. It is not enough to have a pair of boots, blue eyes and a knife between one's teeth. A general who wants to succeed in the political battlefield needs to be able to look the public in the eye and paint a beautiful picture that both he and the public know is unlikely to come to fruition.

Senior officers are for the most part moral people who aspire to greatness and are armed with command skills. But in order to manage a political campaign and establish a coalition in the political imbroglio of ego and interests, a different kind of experience is necessary. In politics, there are no esprit de corps, and the snakes in the bushes are more poisonous than those slithering around Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. If a general wants to make a political alliance, he would be wise to do it with professional politicians who have completed their "Introduction to Campaign Primaries" course with honors. Unlike the merging of military forces, in politics when two like-minded parties join up they are sometimes equal to less than the sum of their parts.

All former commanders and generals who enter politics hope to imitate the success of late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But unlike the rest, Sharon traveled the bumpy road and could have taught a masterclass on Israeli politics. The late minister and IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, former Labor party leader and now Hatnuah party member Amram Mitzna and even former Prime Minister Ehud Barak got to know the dark side of politics and consequently lost a great deal of the respect and dignity they had worked so hard to earn. The late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who made it to the top and was hugely popular, is another example of a former chief of staff who experienced the agony of being undermined by his so-called "friends."

Ideologies aside, I suggest that anyone who purports to be the next prime minister first take a deep breath and patiently work on establishing themselves in the political arena. It is unpleasant and even embarrassing to see courageous commanders who have high opinions of themselves press up against the political display window as if they were for sale at a campaign shopping mall. As senior commanders, our desire to continue to take responsibility and contribute to the state is worthy of praise. But those who are not experts in the political field are damning their image to hell. And this pretentiousness does indirect damage to their comrades in arms.

The post The IDF general as political rookie appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

They are certainly telling themselves, "With our luck, and Iron Dome to protect us, why get dragged into a war? We have excellent pilots and unmanned aircraft that know how to make noise, frighten, and destroy. If we can't create deterrence, let's at least show them that we have more weapons than they do. … So for now, it's better to let the guys in Gaza use up their stocks of rockets and mortars."

Soon, the fires in our fields will be put out because they'll no longer have balloons and condoms to which to attach fuses and send over the fence, and we'll stop inhaling smoke because they won't have any more tires to burn. Pretty soon we'll block the underground tunnel and undersea threats so we can keep sending them fuel that will be used strictly to produce electricity and construction materials to build homes because that will create employment for the Palestinians of Gaza.

I realize that everyone in charge of our security is recommending to the prime minister that we not fall for the Islamist provocation, because we have the strength to withstand it after 70 years of this stuff.

Other than that, who will we be fighting against – the lightning that happened to cause a rocket that happened to be aimed at Beersheba to be fired? Or against the Islamic Jihad, which is merely an organization supported by Iran and is trying to stir up discord between us and our friends in Hamas, and also ease the pressure in Syria? In short, our defense and security leaders are pushing a strategy of leaving things as they are?

I understand the difficulty of making the decision to go to war. But I don't understand the lack of creative ideas and initiative. I get the feeling that security officials don't believe in our capabilities and, maybe worse, don't believe in the righteousness of our path and in our right to not only defend ourselves but also to launch an attack to ensure our continued existence and quality of life.

For example, why was no decision taken that starting tonight, we launch an operation to take out the entire leadership of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the rest of the terrorist groups in Gaza, from their field commanders to the "civilian" operatives? There is no need to reoccupy Gaza, merely to hunt the commanders and soldiers who do their utmost day after day to kill us. Hunt them from the air, the sea, and on land. We have the capabilities and the brave, well-trained soldiers to do so.

We just need courageous leadership that knows how to direct them. Where have our shrewdness and finesse gone? Why haven't we distributed fliers promising the residents of Gaza $1,000 for every piece of reliable, confirmed information about where terrorist commanders and operatives are hiding? I have no doubt about the deterrent effect that would have, not only in Gaza but also in the clash we expect with Hezbollah in the north.

We don't need to live under this reality for another 70 years. We have to move to a strategy of coexistence from a position of strength. The winner sets the terms of any peace agreement!

The post Where is the IDF finesse? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The familiar refrain that Hamas, Israel and other elements are uninterested in war is irrelevant.

Everyone, it appears, is content to live with and carry out varying tempos of skirmishes. Each side is trying its hardest to exhaust the other and to create problems where solutions can be found.

Our mistaken approach to Hamas as a terrorist organization prevents us from using full force against it. In the years since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas has transitioned from a terrorist group to the sovereign power in Gaza. Hamas controls civilian institutions of governance and an army, allowing it to manage the daily lives of Gazans. It's time to internalize that Hamas, like any other neighboring Arab country, has something to lose. For the past few years, Hamas has forced us to counter its weapons and military infrastructure, which it has sought to use to perpetrate large terrorist attacks on our homefront and to undermine the daily lives of Israeli civilians.

Hamas, like Hezbollah, is a foreign Iranian outpost. If we aspire to a normal life, and if we truly intend to create a shared future here, the time has come to exact the price of true loss from Hamas and for us to pay the cost of real victory. We require strategic understanding and internalization. What happens in the southern arena will have implications for all of our borders. We can continue destroying tunnels, intercepting rockets and mortars, building a sea obstacle and fences in an effort to fortify ourselves to the gills. We can and should continue to attack targets deep inside Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

However, more than anything, we must sever the hands that orchestrate and eliminate the minds that plan and give orders. This cannot be achieved solely with the air force; it requires a smart and courageous land operation.

None of us wishes for war. But it's important to remember that war is a means to achieve diplomatic objectives, and it is prudent to wage it when there is no other option. Our enemy does not recognize our right to live. Despite this, we are prepared to accept him as a neighbor.

To end the suffering on both sides of the border, I do not see any way other than decisive victory followed by an offer to coexist in peace. Similar to my enemies in the Middle East, I too want to have the last word, which in my case is: cease-fire.

The post Cut off the guiding hand appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

This is a familiar routine, which stems from our inability to distinguish between the need to avoid pitfalls and our capacity to extricate ourselves from them.

I have the privilege of being a member of the Golan Search and Rescue Unit, an elite team of Israel Police volunteers. Upon receiving notification of the event in the Arava we turned to the relevant authorities and offered our assistance. Experience has taught us that an event of this sort doesn't end well. To my great sorrow, as search and rescue volunteers, once we are alerted to incoming drastic weather changes, we know right away that a substantial portion of the public won't heed the warnings and will take risks.

Some people simply do not understand the magnitude of the danger and others are convinced "it won't happen to us."

It is hard for us to gauge the power of nature. It's even harder for us to estimate how quickly and forcefully changes can occur during an extreme climate event, such as a heavy downpour in the middle of spring, which builds up and flows like a giant wave through dry gullies. The current, the mud and the suddenness are a death trap for anyone standing in the flood's path or on a low bank. This also applies to powerful and sudden wind changes during a large fire, which can be deadly for anyone unfamiliar with the lay of the land and other factors.

Rescue units train for a variety of scenarios and know – just as members and volunteers of the police's rescue units know – how to analyze the dangers and prepare for them. It's important to keep in mind that rescuers will do everything they can to save lives and will even take risks in the process, up to the point where they endanger their own lives.

A rescuer will wade into dangerous waters only if he knows he can accomplish the mission, which is to get out along with the person he is saving.

These warnings that are issued time and again – "high risk of flash floods in low areas," for example – have been written in blood. Apparently, that is not enough.

Maybe we need photographs from disasters to drive the point home. All we can hope for now is that the unfathomable images of dead girls and boys will help us internalize that we are not intended to defeat the forces of nature but to live and mesh with them.

The post When warnings go unheeded appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.