Israel’s difficult fight against Palestinian terror

For months, the Israeli military has been conducting the campaign “Operation Break the Wave” in the West Bank to defeat extremist Palestinian terror groups like the Nablus-based Lions’ Den organization. The sole objective of these groups is to kill Jews. They deny the right of existence of the Jewish state – within any borders. Israel is defending its citizens.

The international community is highly critical of Israeli measures that are designed to punish past terror against its citizens, and to prevent more. Two such deterrent measures are destroying the houses of the families of terrorists, and placing local closures on areas from which attackers come. To the outside world these may seem arbitrary and excessive. To Israel, they are part of the package of hard measures necessary to prevent further killing of its citizens.

The decision taken last week by the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly to seek an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice shows that a majority of nations in the UN is pushing hard to brand Israel as an illegal state, and force it to move its civilian and military presence from the “occupied Palestinian territories”: East Jerusalem and the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). In other words, they want Israel to give up its right to secure borders. (Putting aside the arguments about whether or not these territories – including the city of Jerusalem – belong to Israel).

The fact is that about 130,000 Palestinians living outside the Green Line hold permits to work in Israel or in the Israeli communities located outside the Green Line. The Palestinian economy is entirely dependent on the cooperation with Israel, as well as financial support from European Union and its member states. In other words, the so-called Palestinian “state” has no economic viability whatsoever without cooperation with Israel. If Israel revokes those working permits, Palestinian workers and their families will suffer the loss of income for their basic needs. The “agreement” between Jerusalem and Ramallah over recent years is that Israel will allow Palestinians to work in Israel provided there is peace and quiet in the Palestinian-governed territories, such as the cities of Jenin and Nablus.

It seems that balance is being eroded. The undemocratic, inefficient and corrupt Palestinian Authority is simply unable (and unwilling) to reign in Palestinian terror cells. On the contrary, it encourages Palestinians to kill Jews, by inciting martyrdom on PA-sponsored media, and paying families of convicted Palestinian terrorists (the “pay for slay” policy).

What is Israel to do? Clearly, simply abandoning the West Bank, as the UN demands, is not an option for Israel. It would amount to national suicide. While in the 1990s there was wide support in Israel for such an option, no-one in Israel today – on the left or right – supports the idea of unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.

The result is a political stalemate. Israel has no option but to crack down even harder on Palestinian extremism. But the UN has become a platform for countries who are hostile to Israel to apply political (and legal) pressure on Israel to give in to the creation of a Palestinian state on its doorstep – a state that would be governed by extremist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which in turn are sponsored and weaponized by Iran.

It is hardly surprising that Israel objects to these measures.

It was also furious when the FBI announced, this week, that it is opening an investigation into the death of US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. This is a highly exceptional investigation, given that at the time of her death Akleh – who works for Qatar-owned media conglomerate Al Jazeera – was embedded in a Palestinian Jihad terror group fighting against the Israeli army. No-one in the West has seriously suggested that she was deliberately targeted. Understandably, Israel – which has a robust judicial system and has carried out its own internal investigation of the incident – regards such an investigation as an invasion of its sovereignty.

A terrorist with a work permit attacks economic cooperation
Yaakov Lappin writes at JNS: “A growing number of Palestinians are rejecting the ‘economy for quiet’ equation that has underpinned stability for the past 15 years, a former intelligence officer tells JNS.”
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White House tells Israel Justice Dept opened Abu Akleh probe without its knowledge
Jacob Magid writes at Times of Israel: “It is not unusual for the FBI or other US investigators to mount probes into non-natural deaths or injuries of American citizens abroad, particularly if they are government employees. However, such separate investigations are not the rule and it is rare, if not unprecedented, for them to occur in a US-allied country like Israel that is recognized in Washington as having a credible and independent judiciary.”
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The Biden administration weaponizes the FBI against Israel
Caroline Glick writes at JNS: “As in the Dreyfus affair, there are no Jewish criminals here, and everyone knows it. The Biden administration has ordered the FBI probe into Shireen Abu Akleh’s death because it wants a crisis with Israel.”
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UN votes to take Israeli ‘occupation’ of ‘Palestine’ to Hague international court
Tovah Lazaroff writes at Jpost: “The UN General Assembly voted 98-17 to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of Israel’s “occupation” of Palestinian territories on the grounds that it can be considered de-facto annexation.Israel, the United States, Canada and Australia were among those nations who opposed the move.”
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