The idea of a "weed" is subjective. Where one might see a bothersome plant, another might see an attractive flower. Still, such an analogy cannot relate to the recent phenomenon of anarchists taking hold of our streets. The hundreds of thousands of Israelis who reside in Judea and Samaria regard these anarchists in just the same manner as the rest of the population living throughout the country does -- as a violent and dangerous group that must be swiftly and adequately dealt with. Following the violent incident that took place Monday night, when 50 right-wing extremists broke into the Ephraim Brigade Command base in Samaria, GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi commented that the leaders of the Yesha Council (the umbrella organization of Jewish municipal councils in Judea and Samaria) are not doing their part to condemn such actions sufficiently. It seems that Mizrahi might not hear so well. Yesha Council leaders are using every platform available to them to repeatedly condemn these criminal actions, actions that only serve to shoot the settlements in their own foot, if not in their head. Get the Israel Hayom newsletter sent to your mailbox! The scorn felt by settlement leaders has not been limited to verbal condemnations. Over the last few months I have, on my own initiative, conducted a round of meetings with senior law enforcement officials, demanding that each deal with the root cause of the anarchist problem and apprehend and indict the culprits. But on Monday, yet again, all law enforcement forces failed, allowing for a long night of violence to be carried out by dozens of hooligans, ending with the arrest of only one individual. Just one. This is intolerable. Mainly as a rather large number of left-wingers invoke the incompetence of the law enforcement system when looking for an axe with which to hack at us. They raise the fact that anarchists are not being apprehended, creating another surreal excuse with which to launch an attack on settlers. Any harm done to the IDF constitutes a strike at us, at all of us, and it is first and foremost the duty of the law enforcement system to protect our soldiers. Yes, soldiers must be protected, not only from the actions of a handful of anarchists. They must also be protected from malign attacks launched by those seeking to take advantage of soldiers' loyalty and bring about the destruction of Jewish homes in Israel. Such actions harm the military, harm the settlements and harm the state of Israel at large.
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