Thousands of people protested outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence on Monday, chanting that Jerusalem -- which has been inundated by Palestinian terrorist attacks -- is a city under Israeli sovereignty. That is very true. But the protesters did not consider that only Israel recognizes that fact. This complicates and somewhat slows down the war on terrorism -- terrorism that has changed this time around and has probably not yet come to an end. There is a broad range of domestic political complaints. There are those who see Netanyahu as responsible because he wasn't flexible regarding the plight of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and there are those who claim he must take an even tougher stance to put an end to terrorism. However, within the coalition -- particularly coming from Habayit Hayehudi ministers -- claims were made that have no connection to reality. What would it mean for Israel to set out on Operation Defensive Shield II? Defensive Shield has proved itself over several years. It brought Israel many security benefits. Before it, we needed large units to retrieve a wounded murderer from a hospital in Jenin or in Nablus. After the murder of the Henkin couple, we needed relatively minimal forces to arrest the murderer. This is thanks to the lasting effect of Operation Defensive Shield. The emerging Israeli war on terrorism, which has yet to reach its peak, is being carried out steadily. For the most part, it stops Palestinian plans before they can be executed -- but there is no war without wounded, and sometimes the terrorists are successful, even before they use the full extent of their force. The pain of the murder is so strong and the grief so deep that it can make it difficult to see Israel's success in fighting terrorism. There is no way to root terror out completely without causing outrage across the globe, but we can keep it to a minimum. This objective is very likely achievable for the defense establishment. The prevailing tactical trend employed by the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security agency and the police, (which is carried out separately from the currently stalled negotiations with the Palestinians), is to bring about calm on the battlefield, among those carrying out stabbing attacks and among the stone throwers. This requires greater freedom of action (subject to controls, of course) for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen. But when Habayit Hayehudi ministers are at the helm of the public complaints against the government, they are encouraging extremist Israelis to take the law into their hands. And so, Israel is bearing witness to a situation in which Jews are also throwing stones and taking actions that are tainted by a certain kind of terrorism, and Habayit Hayehudi ministers are essentially adding to the conflict, rather than helping to calm things down. It's a real Israeli anomaly.
