Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: heroic operations

Showing posts with label heroic operations. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

75 years ago: Jewish heroes saving lives - and getting killed for it

Heroes Haim Graf and Mordechai Komornik

There were two interesting and related articles in the Palestine Post of March 22, 1948, on events that happened 75 years ago today, that were both about Jewish heroes.

The first real heroes were two guards, Haim Graf and Mordechai Komornik, who saw smoke coming out of the abandoned vehicle outside the Solel Boneh building in Haifa. They warned scores of people about a truck bomb - and who were killed by that very bomb as they were pushing the truck away from the crowded building.

Unfortunately, four were killed besides the guards, including a father and his five year old son.

The other heroic story was of a different type:

The Jews rushed to save the lives of their armed enemies - and Zichron Mizrahi paid with his life.

Why did the Arab Legionnaires assume that the Jews who were trying to rescue them were attacking them?

Because that is how Arabs would act!

Palestinian Arabs have a different idea of what being a "hero" means. They have used the word "heroic" consistently with every single murder of a Jew this year (and every other year) by an Arab.

If you want to know a people, know who they consider their heroes.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Abbas didn't condemn Jerusalem attacks; Palestinian newspaper upset at UAE and Turkey for condemning them

It used to be that Mahmoud Abbas, like Yasir Arafat before him, would issue a pro forma condemnation of deadly terror attacks against Israel.

As of this writing, he hasn't said a word against the twin Jerusalem attacks, nor the Ariel terrorist attacks.

He doesn't even pretend anymore to be against terror. Earlier this year he only reluctantly condemned some attacks when under pressure from Israeli and US officials.

Meanwhile, this article in Al Quds News is upset that the UAE and Turkey did condemn the Jerusalem blasts, calling it "normalization:"

The UAE and Turkey were not content with drowning in normalization with the "Israeli" enemy, in all fields, at the expense of the cause and the Palestinian people. Rather, they were quick and brazen to condemn the two heroic Jerusalem operations, which were carried out by the revolutionary Palestinian youth, in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people and its desecration of the holy places.
...
Observers believe that these irresponsible positions come in the context of the state of submission in the positions of the current Palestinian leadership and some Arab and regional leaders, which come within the framework of the destructive settlement and normalization approach, describing the role of Turkey, which condemned the heroic operation, as "hypocritical."

They considered that the resolutions of international legitimacy affirmed the right of peoples suffering from occupation and aggression to resist it in all forms, especially armed resistance. Therefore, the response of our people and its rebellious youth to the occupation is a natural and legitimate response to the crimes of the occupation and its continuation.

As for the statements of condemnation by the normalizers with the entity of the Zionist enemy, (the UAE, Turkey and others), they are a sign and evidence of the level of weakness, humiliation, submission and shame of these countries in front of the Zionist enemy, and the total alienation from the issues of the nation and its center is the Palestinian cause, including the sanctities, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is exposed by the daily desecration by settlers who do not hide their project to build the alleged Temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which enemy governments are working to demolish, God forbid.

This is a mainstream Palestinian position.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Look how proud Palestinian groups are at randomly shooting at a yeshiva

Times of Israel reports:

The head of a yeshiva in the southern West Bank settlement of Carmel said Friday that he was leading a study session when one of his students was struck in a suspected terror shooting.

The 18-year-old was moderately wounded in the attack Thursday night and taken to the hospital for treatment. Israeli security forces launched a manhunt in the area after the assailant fled.

Speaking with Kan public radio, Rabbi Natan Ofner of Yeshiva Reuta said his pupil was now listed as lightly hurt and was due to undergo surgery to remove shrapnel.

Palestinian terror groups are falling over themselves to praise the heroism of someone shooting through a yeshiva window, hoping to kill Jews.

The People's Republic affirmed that this heroic operation comes in fulfillment of the blood of the martyrs of our people and a victory for the suffering of the prisoners,...The People's Republic stressed that this process confirms the extension of the resistance act, and proves the ability of the resistance in the West Bank to penetrate the complex Zionist security measures, in light of the continuation of security coordination and the pursuit of the resistance. To continue the option of struggle until the last Zionist usurper leaves our land, and you should expect more of these honorable operations in the coming days.

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said, "From the north of the West Bank in Jenin al-Qassam, to its south in Khalil al-Rahman, the rebellious youth in the West Bank continue their fight against the occupation army and its settlers."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine praised the heroic operation: "It proves once again the efficacy of revolutionary armed violence in responding to the crimes of the occupation. "

The Popular Resistance Movement in Palestine blessed the heroic Hebron operation, saying: "Once again, the Palestinian resistance proves that it is capable of striking the Zionist security system, and its criminal plans against our Palestinian people fail." It added that "the Hebron operation represents a painful blow to the security coordination and to all calls for settlement and defeatism of the Zionist enemy, and the escalation of heroic operations carried out by our brave men in the Palestinian West Bank, will continue as long as the occupation is perched on our occupied land."

It seems that they are trying to convince themselves that this was a monumental victory, hoping that these tales of heroism will help them to recruit more members. I don''t know if Palestinians are buying any of this.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/16 Links Pt1: Palestinian response to terror on Israelis shows why peace is impossible; EU funds NGO agendas seeking to undermine Israeli counter-terror policies

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Palestinian response to terror on Israelis shows why peace is impossible

A nation, said John F. Kennedy in October 1963, just a month before he was assassinated, “reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”

How true, not only of nations, but also different societies, and segments within those societies. Whom do they honor? Whom do they lionize? So much can be learned about people by understanding who their heroes are. Are their heroes celebrities or scientists? Athletes or teachers? Multibillionaires or social workers?

It is in this vein that The Jerusalem Post’s lead headline on Monday was so terribly troubling and so dismally depressing: “Palestinian terror groups applaud Jerusalem attack, call for more ‘heroic operations.’”

A Palestinian terrorist goes on a shooting spree in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, wounding eight innocent people – including critically wounding an American Jewish woman in her 26th week of pregnancy who is shot in the stomach – and the reaction of a segment of Palestinian society is to term the operation “heroic,” thereby coronating its perpetrator a hero. Why can't the conflict be solved?

Those well-meaning people around the world who can’t understand why the Israelis and Palestinians can’t just find a way to solve their problems and move on already, need to look no further than that headline to understand.

How is peace possible with those who view as heroic the shooting in the stomach of a woman in her 26th week of pregnancy? How is peace possible with people who put in their pantheon of heroes the person who carried out such an attack? What kind of accommodation can possibly be made with those who view an act so despicable as one that is heroic?

Abbas cheers shooting of Americans (but gets a big check from U.S. anyway)

As five Americans and three Israelis lie wounded in a Jerusalem hospital, some of them fighting for their lives, the official web site of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is praising the terrorist who shot them.

Yes, the same Abbas who will be receiving more than $500 million in aid from the Biden administration this year. Most of the money will be channeled through third parties, but it’s all fungible—it covers bills that Abbas and the PA would have to pay if the U.S. wasn’t paying them.

Abbas is chairman of both the PA and Fatah, which is the largest faction of the PA. Abbas was a leader of Fatah for many years under Yasir Arafat, before succeeding him as chairman.

Here is what Abbas’s official Fatah website had to say about the shooting attack on the Americans and Israelis in Jerusalem:

“Praise to the one whose rifle only speaks against his enemy. Long live our people’s unity and long live the free hero. Praise to the rifle muzzles, our people will fight the occupation with all kinds of resistance.” (Translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch)

According to my data base, at least 146 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the 1968. The international community has largely forgotten them.

Even more forgotten—if that’s possible—are the wounded. At least 203 American citizens have been injured in Palestinian Arab attacks. Very often, their names are not even mentioned in the media coverage until days after.

The Biden administration hosts a web site which offers monetary rewards for information leading to the arrest of terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas. Yet as far as I can tell, it has never paid a reward in connection with Palestinian Arab terrorists who have harmed Americans; there are none listed in the “Success Stories” section of the site (rewardsforjustice.net) .

The Biden administration has an Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism. It has never brought about the arrest of a single Palestinian Arab terrorist involved in attacks on Americans—even though the names of many of the terrorists are publicly known, because they serve in the Palestinian security forces or other Palestinian Authority government positions.

The Biden administration recently invited the family of the late Al Jazeera correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, to Washington to meet with American officials. Yet Arnold Roth, the father of Malki Roth—murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem in 2001—reports that the administration has ignored his repeated requests to meet with U.S. officials in Washington.

NGO Monitor: EU funds NGO agendas seeking to undermine European and Israeli counter-terror policies

On February 1, 2022, the highly politicized and terror-linked Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) – an umbrella organization of over 135 Palestinian organizations – hosted an EU-funded conference, titled ”Shrinking Civic Space for Palestinian Civil Society Organizations: Local and International Policies.” The gathering included a workshop “focused on the strategies and mechanisms needed to combat counter-terrorism policies, regulations, and policies (sic)” (emphasis added).

The conference was attended by Head of the EU Delegation to the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sven Kühn Von Burgsdoff (see below). The event marked the launch of a €588,299 EU-funded project (2021-2024), “Shoraka: Enabling the Environment of CSOs [civil society organizations] in Palestine and Participation of Grassroots Organisations in Decisions Making Process and Constituency Building,” with the primary official objective of seeking “to mitigate and reverse the shrinking space trends, to amplify the Palestinian narrative and the effectiveness of Palestinian advocacy efforts in the EU/EUMS [EU member states]”.

During the conference, Von Burgsdoff referred to Israel’s October 2021 designation of six Palestinian NGOs – including PNGO member organizations – as terrorist entities. He declared, “with concern we have followed alarming incidents recently where human rights defenders, activists, and civil society organizations were subject to unprecedented violations whether in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza. In this context, our position remains principled and unchanged: civil society is and will remain our partner as we promote together the human values and principles that we share.”

As such, Von Burgsdoff appears to be promoting noncompliance with the EU’s own anti-terror policies, which require grantees to ensure that no aid reaches terror groups or entities.

Israel’s October 2021 decision, as well as the other “incidents” (security-related actions) referred to by Von Burgsdoff, are wholly consistent with EU policy and broader efforts to address the problem of terror-linked NGOs.

The multiple links between a number of Palestinian NGOs funded primarily by the EU and other European government frameworks have been documented in detail in NGO research publications.

04/12 Links Pt1: Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place; Court: Families of terror victims can sue Pal Auth; Employee at USAID Contractor Celebrated Terrorist Attack Against Israeli Civilians

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: Barack Obama Made the World a More Dangerous Place

And that was fine with the Obama White House. From 2009 to 2013, the White House seemed intent only on extricating itself from European affairs. The administration repeatedly canceled plans to provide radar and interceptor missiles to Central European states, withdrew the last American armored units from European soil, and mused publicly about America’s “pivot to Asia” while ending America’s doctrinal commitment to fighting a great-power war on two distinct fronts.

While the Obama administration did pursue sanctions against Moscow in the wake of its attack on Ukraine, they were narrowly targeted. All that “kicking and screaming” must have happened behind closed doors since there’s little evidence for the pressure Obama describes putting on Europe. The Obama White House even lobbied against the passage of sweeping sanctions laws such as the 2012 Magnitsky Act, and the administration never applied them. It was left to the Trump administration to make use of those tools. And when it came time to provide Ukraine with the means to resist Russian aggression, the Obama administration balked. Kyiv asked for anti-tank weapons from the U.S., but the U.S. provided only small boats, body armor, and binoculars.

As for Obama’s hazy recollection of Putin—a man who supposedly bears little resemblance to the rational figure he once knew—we can only conclude that the former president is a terrible judge of character. The Putin he knew was the very same Putin who is implicated in the murder of critical journalists, who tore Grozny to the ground, invaded Georgia, and slaughtered innocents in Syria. Obama knew Putin was “ruthless,” but he did not know he was reckless. How does the president imagine Putin became so risk-prone if not through the many signals he received over the years licensing his audacity? What similarities are there between 2013-2014 and 2021-2022 except for the presence of a Democrat in the Oval Office and the prospect of a renewed nuclear deal with Iran in which Russia plays an instrumental role?

Obama’s self-serving historical revisionism isn’t new. The 44th president is often cast as both master of his domain and a prisoner of circumstances outside his control. It’s a self-serving narrative that should have received a more hostile reception at a “disinformation” conference. American presidents wield a lot of power, and Barack Obama used his to lay the foundations for the more dangerous world we all now inhabit.

Israel’s Supreme Court: Families of terror victims can sue Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority 'expresses consent to their actions, in a way that takes responsibility'

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Sunday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) can be held responsible by the families of those killed in terror attacks.

The court found that the PA’s controversial policy of paying stipends to Palestinian security prisoners and to families of those killed while committing terror attacks constitutes “confirmation” of terrorist activities.

Some believe that the PA’s payments are necessary social assistance for families who lost a breadwinner, while others criticize the payment system as encouraging terrorism.

The decision means that families of those killed and victims of terror attacks can demand financial compensation from the West Bank’s governing authority, Walla! News reported.

This ruling regarded four lawsuits against the PA in Jerusalem’s District Court by the families of those killed in attacks that took place between 2001 and 2002, the early days of the Second Intifada

In 2019, the lawsuits were rejected by the Jerusalem court, which ruled that the payments made by the PA did not confirm that the attacks were carried out on behalf of the authority.

Meir Sachivshorder, one of the partitioners to the Supreme Court - who lost his parents, sister, and brother in a 2001 attack - responded to the decision: “This is a war I have been waging for 21 years… paying salaries to terrorists,” according to Walla! News.

Employee at USAID Contractor Celebrated Terrorist Attack Against Israeli Civilians

Just hours after news broke that a Palestinian terrorist gunned down several Israeli civilians last week, an employee for one of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) top contractors took to Twitter to celebrate the attack.

"The news is sweeter than a tray of knafeh [dessert] after iftar," tweeted Rawan Abu-Salhieh, who was working at the time as a Jordan-based employee for Proximity International—a prime contractor for USAID that is engaged in several projects that receive U.S. aid dollars. The April 7 terror attack in Tel Aviv killed three Israelis and left six wounded.

Abu-Salhieh routinely celebrates terror attacks on Israel and promotes accounts that encourage violence against Jews, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of her Twitter account. In one Twitter post from two weeks ago, Abu-Salhieh retweeted a graphic that praised a March 29 terror attack in Israel, stating, "shoot and don't have mercy" and describing the assailant as a "heroic martyr." At least a dozen other tweets and retweets contain similar rhetoric in support of terrorism against Israel. Abu-Salhieh deleted her account last week after her comments came under scrutiny from regional observers. Abu-Salhieh's public LinkedIn profile also disappeared shortly after Free Beacon inquiries about her posts; and a Proximity official said she no longer works for the organization, though she was employed when some of her most controversial tweets were published.

Abu-Salhieh's role at an organization that receives U.S. government funding is renewing concerns about USAID's vetting process, which was cited by a government watchdog group in 2021 for its failure to ensure that grantees are not tied to terrorism. Former USAID officials told the Free Beacon that the agency turns a blind eye to contractors that have ties to terrorism and employees who support it. They say this failure to perform oversight work on grant recipients endangers the foreign aid system and allows taxpayer funds to enrich Israel's detractors.

"When someone like the woman who has been flagged is working on a variety of different USAID contracts, the onus is on USAID to actively vet," Bonnie Glick, former deputy administrator at USAID during the Trump administration, told the Free Beacon. "The vetting of key staff should disqualify the contract or grant recipient if they have key personnel who are acting in ways that are anathema to USAID's values."

Proximity International's CEO, Courtney Brown, condemned Abu-Salhieh's rhetoric when reached for comment by the Free Beacon and disclosed that she is no longer an employee of the organization, though she was at the time several of her most controversial tweets were posted. Brown said her departure from the organization was in motion prior to the Free Beacon‘s inquiries, but due to the company's human resources policies, would not disclose the reasons she parted ways with Proximity.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood warns against Jew cooties

The term "Jew cooties" was created by Meryl Yourish in 2005 to describe how Arabs and Muslims would treat anything remotely associated with Jews or Israel as dangerous and infectious. (Ironically, her first example - of Dubai rejecting Israeli medical equipment - no longer applies.)

The Observer General of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Abdul Hamid Al-Thneibat, just issued a statement saying that "the Islamic movement will carry out its duty and play its role in confronting normalization with the Zionist entity and containing its repercussions, and immunizing our Jordanian people and the peoples of the nation from being penetrated by its thought, awareness and culture."

Thneibat bitterly complained, "During the past months, we have rushed into projects of normalization with the occupation through the water and electricity exchange agreement, and a number of leaders of the occupying entity have desecrated the pure land of Jordan."

The Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan is really afraid of infection by Jewish thoughts, Jewish culture and anyone treating Israeli Jews as human beings.

It is reminiscent of Nazi antisemitic propaganda that compared Jews to lice that spread typhus. Which is, after all, the same thinking behind BDS to begin with - to treat everything "Israeli" as contaminated and not to be touched.

Not surprisingly, the group - which insists that it is non-violent - applauds Palestinians murdering Jews.

"The recent heroic operations that the occupied Palestinian territories witnessed in the 1948 lands and in the West Bank during the past days, express the unity of the Palestinian people in the various locations of their presence on the resistance program," he said.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/30 Links Pt1: Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'; Palestinian social media celebrates murder of Ukrainians in terror attack

From Ian:

Five killed in Bnei Brak shooting as Israel enters 'new wave of terror'

Five people were killed by a Palestinian terrorist in a shooting attack in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday night.

The shooting was first reported around 8:00 p.m. on HaShnaim Street. One person was found lifeless in a car and two other people were shot dead on a nearby sidewalk. A video later circulating on social media showed the attacker yelling in Arabic, shooting bystanders with an assault rifle on a residential street.

Another Israeli was found dead on Herzl street, perpendicular to HaShnaim Street. Yaakov Shalom, a Bnei Brak resident and father of five, and rabbi Avishai Yehezkeli, a yeshiva teacher and father of two, were identified as two of the five people killed in the attack. Victor Sorokopot, 38, and Dimitri Mitrik, 23, two workers from Ukraine, were also identified as victims of the attack.

The shooter was later shot dead by a police officer who arrived at the scene on a motorcycle. The officer, 32-year-old Arab Christian Amir Khouri, was evacuated to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in critical condition and died from his wounds soon after, making him the fifth victim.

The shooter was identified as Dia Hamarsha, 27, from the village of Ya'bad in the northern West Bank near Jenin. He was jailed for six months in 2015 for dealing in illegal firearms and affiliation with a terrorist group, and had worked illegally at a Bnei Brak construction site.

Another person was arrested at the scene and investigated on suspicion of assisting the shooter, and a third person was arrested later on Tuesday night further east on Jabotinsky Street.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi, Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar to discuss the attack and rule on Israel's response.

In the meantime, Israel Police was put on its highest alert level for the first time since Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021. Shabtai decided that the police will focus on visible public security and will put more officers on the streets and in crowded areas. The IDF also announced that it was also sending reinforcements to the West Bank.

Victims of Bnei Brak terror attack: 2 local fathers, Christian Arab cop, 2 Ukranians

Authorities early Wednesday identified three of the five victims of a deadly terror shooting spree in Bnei Brak the previous night, including two young fathers and a police officer who helped kill the gunman.

The victims were named as officer Amir Khoury, 32, a Christian Arab; and local residents Yaakov Shalom, 36, and Avishai Yehezkel, 29.

The two other victims were foreign workers from Ukraine who had not been identified by Wednesday afternoon.

Khoury, an Arab Israeli from the northern town of Nof Hagalil, served on the Bnei Brak police station’s motorcyclist responders team.

Khoury was part of a team of two motorcycle officers who caught up with the gunman and killed him, ending the deadly shooting spree.

Khoury was hit in the exchange of fire and later died after being rushed to the Beilinson Medical Center, officials said.

Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai spoke later with Khoury’s father, Jarris. The father told Shabtai that they are a police family and that he was a veteran of the Tel Aviv police department.

Shabtai said his son’s death, confronting the attacker, was “a great tragedy for the police.”

“Alongside the tragedy, it is important for me to tell you that your son saved the lives of many civilians,” Shabtai says. “His actions will become a legacy and memory of heroism for the whole country.”

Khoury leaves behind his parents and two sisters.

'Israel is dealing with a new wave of terrorism' - Bennett

In a video statement released after the Bnei Brack attack, Bennett said that Israel is "currently facing a new wave of terrorism.”

"After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price, whose hatred of Jews, of the State of Israel, drives them crazy," Bennett said in a short video address Wednesday morning.

"They are prepared to die – so that we will not live in peace," he added.

Israel has already pushed to thwart what it feared would be outbreaks of Palestinian violence, similar to what sparked a Gaza war last May and a wave of ethnic Jewish-Arab riots within sovereign Israel.

"What we witnessed less than a year ago in Operation Guardians of the Walls, the terrorism and the violence, from within Israel and inside Israel, was the first sign," Bennett said.

"This is a great and complex challenge for the IDF, the ISA and the Israel Police that requires the security establishment to be creative and for us to adapt ourselves to the new threat and read the tell-tale signs of lone individuals, sometimes without organizational affiliation, and to be in control on the ground in order to thwart terrorism even before it happens," he explained.

"The security forces of the State of Israel are the best in the world. They are up to the task and, as in the previous waves, we will prevail this time as well," he added.

He sent his condolences to the families of the victims, wished a speedy recovery to the wounded and thanked the civilians and police officers who helped end the attacks for their heroism.

"I stand by the civilians and police officers who shot the terrorists in the various locations. I have spoken with some of them and thanked them on behalf of all of us. These are heroes of Israel who, thanks to their courage, have saved lives," he said.

"We face a challenging period. We have experience in dealing with terrorism, from the very beginning of Zionism. They did not break us then and they will not break us now," Bennett said.

"The secret of our existence is the mutual responsibility among us and our determination to maintain the home that we have built – at any price," he explained, adding that "citizens of Israel, we will prevail this time as well."

No, it's not the Third Intifada - analysis

A generation of both Israelis and Palestinians who grew up in the midst of suicide bombings do not want to see a repeat of such a scenario. Both sides understand the catastrophe that they lived through during those violent years.

Because of that, Israel’s defense establishment only last week increased the number of work permits for Gazans to 20,000, in an attempt to reduce the tensions that have been bubbling under the surface.

Officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar are also working to reduce the flames-holding an unprecedented number of meetings in public. Those meetings came as Israel tried to differentiate between terrorism from the West Bank and Gaza and terrorism carried out by Arab-Israelis.

Nonetheless, despite the rush of diplomatic meetings and doubling of troops in flashpoint areas, 27-year-old Dia Hamarsheh was still able to illegally cross into Israel through a hole in the security fence and open fire on unarmed civilians with a military-grade assault rifle, just mere minutes from Tel Aviv.

In order to prevent future attacks, including copycat attacks, security forces and Bennett’s government have a lot of work to do.

One issue that should top their list is to fix the holes in the security fence through which thousands of Palestinians cross to Israel daily – including the mornings after each deadly attack this past week.

Security forces must also ramp up their operations in combating the trend of illegal weapons that have flooded into Arab communities and continue to be smuggled in from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

Combating the ideologies of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a struggle that will continue for years, and will be harder to deal with as long as Palestinians and Arab-Israelis feel they have nothing to lose.

Israel’s military does not want Defensive Shield 2.0 2022. But in order to prevent that, the IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police must get the situation under control.

They can no longer afford to play catch-up.