Enough chatter
More than a few analysts of great importance in their own eyes would have been happy this Saturday to swallow their paper or hit delete over the arrogance with which they described terrorist Nashat Milhem's murder of three Israelis in the heart of Tel Aviv and successful evasion of law enforcement for a week.
Ah, what a pathetic police force Israel has and how the Shin Bet security agency has been embarrassed, with a single terrorist causing an entire country to quake and keeping the agencies charged with its security helpless. Until that moment at 4:20 p.m. on Friday, when the tragic case ended in the best way possible in unfortunate circumstances: Milhem was killed by police special forces, and none of the people who slandered the Shin Bet and the police will apologize or retract his words, or even hint at it.
The events of last week lead us to certain conclusions: Chatter is bad; and there is no point in denigrating the Shin Bet as if it hadn't been able to prevent the murderer from fleeing to Judea and Samaria because that information was incorrect; and Europe, even with the cooperation of Interpol and the other internal security agencies, manages to capture fewer terrorists than Israel.
In general, and for the future, lines of faith between the public and the police, the Shin Bet and sometimes the army should be drawn out: The agencies charged with the country's internal security work at full steam to achieve 100% success, and public opinion should consider that maximum success is not always achievable. They try for 100%. They achieve nearly 100%. That's the formula.
The authorities haven't reached that yet, although they're close. It's still crucial to know who took an active part in helping the murderer or just kept quiet; who gave him cigarettes and candy; and mainly, who knew where he was; and who in his village of Arara organized a demonstration in honor of the "shahid" (who also murdered an Israeli Arab) and put up a mourning tent for him.
In such circumstances, the heart wants to rethink the decision to allocate more funds to the Arab sector. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud ministers Zeev Elkin and Yariv Levin are inclined to condition Umm al-Fahm's budget on public sentiment there.
I oppose conditioning wholeheartedly. It's wrong, it will push the Arab public further toward anti-Israeli extremism at a time when it's actually right to talk to their hearts and explain that the increased budget is a gesture of goodwill. But MKs from the Joint Arab List and terrorists and their assistants still stand between that public and a functional Jewish state. But even without the budgetary conditioning, it's time for action.
The Arab MKs claim that the police aren't confiscating illegal weapons? By all means, let's organize a joint operation between the police and heads of Arab local authorities to collect guns in city squares without punishing those who were keeping them illegally, and draft young Arabs into national service, to be rewarded upon its completion by entrance into universities and government jobs.
There is a wide range of things that must be corrected, but terrorism by Israeli Arabs against the State of Israel must be fought and defeated. In addition, we must examine who in that sector is standing by passively or sticking spokes in the wheels.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו