The new Arab murderer was born after the handshakes – the handshakes of Rabin and Netanyahu with Yasir Arafat, the head of the PLO (the Organization to Liberate the Land of Israel from the Jews).
For his entire life, the new Arab murderer has heard from Israel that the Land is his and that we are nothing more than occupiers who will soon be moving on. The new Arab murderer thus does not need an organization to ignite him. Israel has been igniting him from the day he was born.
In 1967, during the Six-Day War of miracles, it took the IDF a day and a half to capture the entire Gaza Strip from the Egyptian army. In the summer of 2014, Gaza terrorized Israel, including Tel Aviv – for almost two months. All that Israel’s much more powerful army managed to do was to achieve a fragile cease-fire with a small, motley organization of terrorists.
Menachem Begin destroyed the nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 with no speech in the UN and with no advance warning. Netanyahu addresses Iran’s threats to destroy Israel by making speeches. He has managed to make Iran’s aspirations practically legitimate, buttressed with a sly wink of the eye by international accords.
The problem began at Oslo. When Rabin and Netanyahu shook Arafat’s hand and accepted in principle that Israel’s heartland belongs to the Arabs, they turned themselves (and all of us) into colonialists in a foreign land, occupiers of a land that belongs to others.
If somebody sets up camp in your living room and claims to be the owner of your home, you can call the police, you can yell, or you can push him out the door. But one thing is for sure: If instead of opposing him, you offer him a part of your house, the neighbors will understand that the entire house really belongs to him.
With two cursed handshakes, Rabin and Netanyahu gave the head of the Organization to Liberate the Land of Israel from the Jews – all the Land from all the Jews – the most important weapon of all. They gave him the weapon of justice. Israel today is armed from head to toe with the most advanced and sophisticated weapons. But its mindset does not allow it to defend itself.
In the weeks to come, we will likely see more and more soldiers, more and more roadblocks, more and more severe punishments – more and more carpets being thrown over the glowing embers. As in the past, we may even think for a moment that we have managed to extinguish the fire. But it will always re-ignite for the very simple reason that we are dealing with a new generation of Arabs: intelligent, proud, and armed with the justice that we afforded them.
If the current violence does not dissipate on its own, I do not see how the present government can deal with it. They can clamp down on Judea and Samaria, but imposing a curfew on the Arab villages and towns inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders does not seem likely. And even if the government will be forced to impose such a curfew, what will it do about the Arab violence in the mixed cities?
The Solution
- Restore Israel’s confidence in the justice of its cause. Quickly end the “occupation” and return – mentally – to the Land of Israel as rightful owners.
- Immediate nullify the Oslo Accords and eliminate foreign groups that entertain any notion of controlling the area, just as we did in Operation Protective Shield.
- Restore Israeli control over all parts of the Land in our hands and declare full sovereignty in all of Judea and Samaria – as we did in the Golan Heights.
- The Arabs living in Judea and Samaria must be forced to declare loyalty to the Jewish state or paid to leave the country.
- Allocate the entire Land to its owners, the Nation of Israel – particularly all citizens who serve in the army. Allow accelerated construction throughout the Land.
- Any nationalist violence will be considered an act of war and the permanent resident status of its perpetrators and those close to them will be revoked.
The time has come for leadership that understands the source of the problem and is capable of dealing with it. The time has come for Zehut.