West Bank & Jerusalem
Veteran Israeli analyst says army now guards settler extremists' provocations
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Israel's army has lost control of extremist settlers and now provides them security services instead of enforcing the law, the veteran military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai wrote Thursday in Ynet, calling the situation intolerable in a civilized state.
His starting point is the incident at the Palestinian village of Tel two weeks ago, when dozens of Israelis strolled through the village without permits and an armed clash followed. Ben-Yishai stressed the army's own inquiry found no attack: no planning, no armed Palestinians, and an Israeli entry that broke Israeli law.
He listed what came next: thirteen unauthorized outposts thrown up around Havat Gilad and Tel, on top of roughly one hundred outposts and farms established in the West Bank in recent months, with the army and police stretching costly surveillance systems to protect them rather than remove them.
When groups of Israelis entered Nablus without coordination last week, he wrote, the army sent forces not to expel them but to secure their provocation until they chose to leave.
Ben-Yishai added that preparations to storm another refugee camp, apparently Balata, serve right-wing politicians rather than any operational need, letting Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claim the army executes their program. That politicization, he concluded, threatens the Zionist project itself.
