Ma’ariv reported Tuesday morning that the Lapid-Bennett government has decided to sideline Internal Security Minister Barlev (Labor) in the coming Knesset emergency session on Wednesday, following a long string of humiliating faux pas. Channel 12 News reported that the Knesset will hold an emergency session in response to the wave of Arab terrorism, but Barlev will not be on hand to address challenges from the opposition parties, even though his office, which controls all the security forces save for the IDF, is the most directly involved.
According to Ma’ariv, the coalition parties have decided that since Barlev would be an easy target for the opposition speakers, the government would be represented in the debate by Communication Minister Yoaz Hendel.
Barlev has been a source of ceaseless embarrassment practically since he took office last year. This reached a peak of sorts Tuesday morning, when during an interview on Reshet Bet radio, Barlev revealed that Sayeret Matkal special force fighter Barak Sharabi, who died in a secret operation in 1984, was killed in Syrian territory – this despite a military censorship ban on the publication of information about the circumstances of his death.
Speaking on the eve of Israel’s Memorial Day, Barlev said, “Barak Sharabi, who was killed somewhere deep in Syrian territory under my command, while I was the commander of Sayeret Matkal.”
Back in 2014, Makor Rishon cited a Shin Bet agent who took part in the operation in which Sharabi was killed, who said: “The operation was very important and complex, it’s no secret that the unit’s activities are very sensitive, and exposing this incident could have exposed operational methods and directly harmed state security.”
Makor Rishon noted that “the operation that the unit embarked on went horribly wrong, which led to a difficult and prolonged rescue of the force’s soldiers, along with the dead Sharabi and eight wounded fighters. This is all we are allowed to report about the complex operation, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that if the fighters had been exposed to the enemy that night – it could have dragged Israel into war.”
השר עמר בר לב על דברי נחמן שי – “יצאנו בשלום מחודש רמדאן”: “המשטרה פעלה בתבונה ובגמישות רבה בסיטואציה הרגישה הזאת. בחודש האחרון לא היו נרצחים, בחודש שלפניו היו פיגועים קשים והמשטרה מצאה את עצמה חוצצת בגופה בין אותם טרוריסטים לאזרחי המדינה”#קלמןליברמן @KalmanLiebskind @asaf_lib pic.twitter.com/yx60JxhwEY
— כאן | רשת ב (@ReshetBet) May 3, 2022
But wait, there was so much more. In the same Tuesday morning interview, Public Security Minister Barlev declared: “We came out unharmed from the month of Ramadan.” Then, to the astonishment of his interviewers, Barlev added the following:
“The police acted wisely and with great flexibility in this sensitive situation. In the last month, there have been no murders. In the month before, there were serious terrorist attacks and the police found themselves separating with its body between those terrorists and the country’s citizens.”
All heroics aside (Israeli Police and Border Guard officers did throw themselves into the fray time and again, facing up to the murderers and eliminating many of them at great cost to themselves, and several officers have been killed – DI), Barlev’s assertion that there were no terrorist murders in the month of April is even more insane than his previous declaration that violence in Judea and Samaria is perpetrated equally by settlers and PA Arab terrorists, or his sympathy tweet to the families of the fallen policemen in an operation that had no police casualties. Barlev misunderstanding of the situation on the ground during Ramadan is on a par only with his December 14, 2021 tweet: “Today I met with the Under Secretary of State of the United States, Ms. Victoria Nuland. The Under Secretary of State was interested, among other things, in settler violence and how to reduce tensions in the region and strengthen the Palestinian Authority (Terrifying: Internal Security Minister Barlev Discussed ‘Settler Violence’ with Top US Official).”
The shooting attack in a pub on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv took place on April 7. Three Israeli men were murdered and another 14 civilians were injured. The terrorist, an Arab resident of Jenin, was killed early the next day by fighters from the Shin Bet operational unit in Jaffa, near the mosque from which he had set out the day before to carry out his murder spree.
And the shooting attack in Ariel took place on April 29. It was carried out by two PA Arab terrorists at the entrance to the city of Ariel, killing an Israeli security guard. The terrorists were caught the next day in their homes in the village of Kravat Bnei Hassan.
But there was so much more violence during the month of Ramadan (which many Israelis have taken to calling Ramadam, “dam” meaning blood). Ramadan began on April 1, and on April 2 and 3, Arabs from eastern Jerusalem (carrying an Israeli blue ID card and benefiting from the state’s plethora of social services) threw bottles and stones at Police in Damascus Gate who were securing the entrance of Muslim worshipers to the Old City and the Temple Mount.
On April 10, a terrorist was caught with a knife near the Barkan industrial zone after pulling it out on a civilian in a nearby open area. A terrorist also tried to stab several soldiers near the village of Husan, was shot in the leg, and died as a result of blood loss. A few hours later, a terrorist was shot after stabbing a soldier and lightly wounding him at the entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
On April 11, two Jews were shot and moderately injured, after trying to reach Joseph’s tomb outside Shechem, to clean up the place after it had been vandalized by a mob of PA Arabs.
On April 12, around 5:00 AM, an Arab infiltrator from Hebron carried out a stabbing attack at a construction site in the city of Ashkelon. A policeman was slightly injured and the terrorist was shot and killed.
On April 13, a Jew entering the village of Husan was attacked and injured by Arab rioters.
On April 15, a 15-year-old Israeli Arab stabbed and wounded a 35-year-old Jewish man in Haifa. He was caught. That same day, violent riots broke out on the Temple Mount, egged on by Hamas.
On April 17, the first day of the week of Passover, rioters threw stones at buses carrying passengers to the Kotel, mashing all the windows and injuring seven Jewish passengers. On the same day, young Arabs attacked three Jews who were walking to the Kotel wearing their prayer shawls.
And so, we must ask, is Israel’s Minister of Public Security qualified to carry out his duties? Should he be tested (Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.).
MK Itamar Ben Gvir––whom I personally would like to see take over the office of public security after this embarrassing government is toppled––issued a statement saying, “This is an extreme left-wing minister, who reveals state secrets and is not fit to serve as a minister in the State of Israel, and does not control what comes out of his mouth. Omer Barlev endangers the security of the state, not only because he surrendered to terrorism and raised a white flag in Jerusalem, but also because a person like him must not be exposed to state secrets – because as soon as he is exposed to them, he reveals them.”
MK Ben Gvir added: “In a normal country, the prime minister would have fired him immediately, and every day he remains in office he causes more damage to the security of the state.”
