The security situation deteriorated on Monday. Emotionally, we are inclined to take harsh steps in response: Extreme rightists are demanding the imposition of a closure, mass arrests and limited freedom of movement for Palestinians. Israelis have disagreed about this since the 1930s when the policy of restraint in the face of Arab terrorism was in effect -- and the argument hasn't ended yet. It is so just. It is so understandable. And yet, the demand for a harsher response is, at the very least, premature.
Israel also experienced this type of argument during Operation Protective Edge. Then, too, Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman were furious with the government. Nevertheless, the measured approach chosen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz proved itself worthwhile. Perhaps in a few months' time, a gradual, moderate approach led by Netanyahu, Ya'alon and current Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot will prove itself once again. As sad as it may be, managing a war on terror is also a matter of trial and error.
On Monday, Israel imposed restrictions on the movement of Palestinians from the Hebron area. It was no coincidence that the local PLO governor called on the U.N. to have freedom of movement restored to previous levels. The IDF is increasing the pressure with a series of cautious steps. For example, a Palestinian vehicle cannot merge onto Route 60 from Hebron to Gush Etzion without first being checked by the military; villages in the area will be searched during the nights; and defense measures have been expanded at all popular hitchhiking spots in Judea and Samaria.
We can't know if these steps will be enough. But we should not immediately employ every means available to the defense establishment. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have an interest in racing to the end of the road. There is no reason to rush into a closure, or a total cutoff, which will increase violence and poverty in the Palestinian community that will have lost the income of 200,000 of its members who work in the Israeli economy.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also responsible for this -- for false propaganda spread among the Palestinians that interprets any kind of separation between Israelis and Palestinians on the roads as apartheid, rather than a legitimate way to protect people's lives. It's not just the PA making these false claims, but also left-wing Knesset members. Though Abbas has not canceled security cooperation with Israel, the agreement is unraveling bit by bit each day. And in the West there is support for this -- they suggest that Israel make concessions to the Palestinians, as if the stabbing terrorists were Israelis. "The lie became truth," George Orwell wrote in his novel "1984." This is even worse.
Israel's main problem is finding a way to increase faith in the capabilities of the IDF, the police and the Shin Bet security agency to overcome this wave of terror as the public waits with bated breath. There is no other choice.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו