Major General Yehuda Fox on Monday got the last word against the folks he had been terrorizing since 2021, and who, as was to be expected, did not accept his aggression obediently.
“I did as much as I could to protect the residents of the State of Israel and the residents of the region, I took seriously every stone and bottle that was thrown, and I saw myself as responsible for every person who was injured in body or soul. Each and every one that fell burned me,” said the outgoing commander of the Central Command, summarizing a kind of fantasy tenure few in his Jewish constituency in Judea and Samaria would recognize. “We investigated, learned, and drew lessons. I didn’t always succeed. Sometimes I failed. I will carry the price of this blood with me forever.”
OK, that part was cogent and introspective, and if the major general could find it in himself to drop the mic and go home at that point, the evening would have been both instructive and appealing. But, of course, how could he? So, the introspective stuff was immediately followed by a brutal attack on the disobedient Jews.
IS SETTLER VIOLENCE WORSE OR THE SAME AS NATIONALIST CRIME?
“Unfortunately, in recent months as well as in the last week, nationalist crime has reared its head, and under the auspices of war, and the desire for revenge, it has sown disaster and fear in Palestinian residents who did not pose any threat.”
Like “settler violence,” “nationalist crime” is code for Jewish settlers who hit back, and “Palestinian residents who did not pose any threat” is code for Arab shepherds, Arab highway shooters, Arab firebombers, and Arab car rammers.
Fox continued his standup routine along predictable lines: “Unfortunately, the local leadership and the spiritual leadership for the most part did not see the threat as we did. It is deterred, and does not find in itself the strength to come out openly and act in the light of the values of Judaism it teaches its children.”
This thing about how the settlers’ acts of self-defense are defiance of Jewish values has been a running theme with Fox and numerous other leftist pork chop munchers. Many of them, by the way, come from traditional Jewish homes, and the stuff they spew against their fellow Jews attests to just how little they picked up at home. Fox is the son of a national-religious rabbi and attended a Haredi yeshiva. It reminded me of former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot who declared that the statement, “He who rises to kill you, kill him first” is not acceptable as a value for the IDF (it’s a quote from Tractate Sanhedrin, 12a). Eisenkot told High School students a few years ago that this cannot be used as a principle for the army’s rules of engagement, “It’s just a slogan,” he explained.
Does this attitude of the IDF top brass explain the mystery of their October 7 disaster? Oh, but there’s more.
A LONG LINE OF IGNORANT JEWS PONTIFICATING
“Even if the perpetrators are a minority among the settlers’ community, those who remain silent in the face of their crimes do not exclude them and their actions, thereby inviting criticism from everyone. This is not Judaism in my eyes – at least not the one I grew up with in my father’s and mother’s house. This is not the way of the Torah. This is about adopting the ways of the enemy and following his laws. It was my responsibility to act, and here, too, unfortunately, I didn’t always succeed.”
It is jarring to realize that the general who was in charge of protecting Jews for three years was a crypto-Christian ideologue who sided with their enemies. It is perplexing to realize that this general followed a generation of IDF commanders who believed Jewish security could rely on the Palestinian Authority. In his appearance before high school students in Bat Yam, Eisenkot reassured them that the PA offered 40 thousand security officers to maintain Israel’s security.
Yes, the same PA that pays salaries to terrorists behind bars with blood on their hands. The same PA whose top officials have been musing about a re-do of October 7, but this time from Qalqilya and Tulkarem against Kfar Saba and Ra’anana.
“Sowing fear among the citizens in the shadow of the events of October 7 is a dangerous mistake,” Fox warned on Monday. “The ability of the Central Command to fulfill its tasks, to protect the residents of Israel and the residents of the area, also depends on the existence of a functioning and strong Palestinian Authority, with effective security mechanisms that maintain law and order. This is the starting point of the commander of the central command, based on a government decision.”
Israel Gantz, Head of the Binyamin Regional Council and Chairman of Yesha Council, responded: “The conceptzia that the IDF needs to preserve the Palestinian Authority in order to maintain Israel’s security is what turned Jenin and Shechem into Gaza, one yard from Netanya and Kfar Saba. Unfortunately, the military and political leadership closed their ears when we were warned about the outbreak of terrorism in the last two years as well as on the eve of October 7. This conceptzia contained murderous attacks and was deterred by terrorist organizations and the Palestinian Authority. To this day, the heads of the army continue to bury their heads in the sand regarding the danger posed to the State of Israel by the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority.”
IT’S A MIRACLE!
In the 1930s, a Jewish man was seen riding the train in Berlin reading Der Sturmer, the Nazi party’s newspaper. He explained: When I read the Jewish papers all I can see is news about Jewish persecution and suffering. But when I read der Sturmer I see the Jews control the world, the Jews own the banks. It’s happier news.
When yours truly is feeling down, I go to Haaretz (I also have a subscription to Peace Now). On Tuesday morning, attorney Michael Sfard, one of the most despicable celebs of the Israeli aggressive left, posted an op-ed titled, “Smotrich completed the annexation of the West Bank.”
“The governing revolution in the West Bank was carried out in accordance with Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to Bezalel Smotrich in the coalition agreement, and its main point is the transfer of almost all governing powers in the West Bank, with the exception of those relating to security, from the army to the apparatus headed by Smotrich. It happened at the end of May. Quietly, quietly, without ceremony or announcements, the General of the Central Command, Yehuda Fox, signed an order that created a new position in the Civil Administration – Deputy Head of the Civil Administration for Civil Affairs, and the head of the Civil Administration signed a document delegating powers to the deputy.”
Sfard is correct. On Sunday, I reported (Peace Now: 3 New Settlements, 5,295 Homes in Judea and Samaria; Minister Strook: It’s a Miracle) that Minister of Settlement and National Missions Orit Strook believes the past few months have been “like a time of miracles.” She was referring to the news as reported by Peace Now: “The Supreme Planning Council approved today and yesterday (July 3-4) the promotion of 5,295 housing units in dozens of settlements throughout the West Bank. The construction plans include the expansion of the settlements located deep in the West Bank and the regulation of the outposts Camp Gedi, Givat Hanan, and Kedem Arba as ‘neighborhoods’ of existing settlements (in addition to the 5 outposts authorized by the cabinet last week).”
And so, the fox is gone, he is being replaced by Major General Avi Bluth, a graduate of the pre-military yeshiva in Eli. We hope that from this point on there will be no more foxes, and “There’s nobody here but us chickens.”
