Need to boost activity. IDF troops in the territories
צילום: מאיר פרטוש
A test of patience
The Tel Aviv suicide bombing shows the IDF must not stop operating in the West Bank
There is no need to search for excuses or elaborate explanations. Friday's suicide bombing is the price of the politicians’ decision to reduce the Israel Defense Forces' activity in the territories in order to strengthen Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
The reduced military operations is a prerequisite for Abbas’ survival, and politicians – with all the pain involved – take calculated risks.
פיגוע טיילת מועדון הסטייג' (צילום: עופר עמרם)
Security sources estimated that when the IDF scaled back its operations, terror organizations would renew their activity, at least until Palestinian security forces were organized. This is exactly what is transpiring.
The IDF is currently arresting only terrorists who according to intelligence sources are already prepared to carry out attacks, but it is not dealing with the terror infrastructure.
In such a state of affairs, the Shin Bet Security Services will gather less and less intelligence, which will inevitably lead to fewer successes in containing terror.
Palestinian security forces have yet to engage in anti-terror activity. This will take them some time. Therefore, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz convened an emergency meeting Saturday to find a way to fill the security vacuum without hindering the political process. To find a way to act, in the interim, against the terror infrastructures during the transfer of West Bank cities to the PA - knowing full-well their ability to fight terror is limited.
Friday night’s suicide bombing is another phase in the test of Israeli society’s patience since Abbas took power.
When, during the Sharm el-Shiekh summit, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pressured Abbas to show resolve in the fight against terror, Abbas answered (in Hebrew): “Patience, patience.”
Pressure on Syria and Hizbullah
So, the politicians have patience because they share a common interest with the Palestinians to finalize the Gaza disengagement in a period of quiet. The question is whether Israeli society has enough patience to endure repeated terror attacks.
If it were up to the leaders, both Israeli and Palestinian citizens would endure at least until the end of September.
Barring another major terror attack, or total loss of control by the PA, Israel will not alter its appeasing stance vis-a-vis the Palestinians until the disengagement plan is completed.
After disengagement, the interests would again diverge, but that’s a whole other story.
Some 80 percent of terror activity in the West Bank is driven by Hizbullah and terror headquarters in Damascus. This external “engine” is not influenced by Israeli pressure, and the only way to contain it is to re-start the lawn mower in the territories at full throttle (this would also terminate Abbas’ control as well), or, alternately, to continue promoting massive international pressure against Syrian and Lebanon as the means to halt their support of Palestinian terror.
Meanwhile, until the political pressure generates positive results, the IDF must demand that the government allow it to increase its activity in the West Bank. We must not return to the pre-intifada situation whereby Israel was dependent on the Palestinian capability to fight terror.
-Alex Fishman is senior military affairs correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth
