\u201cThe state of Israel in its weakness to actually enforce law and order is shooting itself in the foot,\u201d Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Conricus told i24NEWS, criticizing the government\u2019s handling of Jewish extremist violence in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Conricus, a former IDF international spokesman and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the military could crack down on those responsible but lacked clear instructions from the political leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, definitely the IDF could, if they had the political guidance, order, directive from the cabinet to do so,\u201d he said. \u201cHandle it, crack down, and deal with it. They don\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking on hills overlooking the Palestinian village of Qusra, where Jewish extremists have been besieging a Palestinian-American family\u2019s home, Conricus described a change in the nature of extremist activity and the political environment surrounding it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a shift, and it\u2019s clear that there is political support behind it, Israeli political support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Can Israel stop West Bank settler violence?<\/p>\n
He linked growing friction to Jewish expansion into Area C and, occasionally, Area B, following what he described as years of unchecked Palestinian construction. He said Israeli activity ranged from government-backed initiatives to local efforts to expand communities, as well as outsiders arriving \u201clooking for trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether the vigilantes were operating in line with the state\u2019s interests or vision, Conricus replied: \u201cThey definitely are.\u201d He cited remarks he attributed to Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth about coordinating hilltop activists and farms in support of security and the expansion of Jewish communities.<\/p>\n
Conricus said individual actions were often uncontrolled, uncoordinated and unlawful, forcing the IDF to divert troops, intelligence resources and time to the resulting friction instead of fighting Palestinian terrorism.<\/p>\n
He also criticized the lack of prosecutions and meaningful penalties. While soldiers and police intervened in confrontations, he said, too few perpetrators faced consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, those numbers are extremely low. They\u2019re laughable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Conricus said there were major intelligence gaps in identifying the extremists\u2019 networks, funding and means of operating. He argued that intelligence efforts had been scaled back, largely for political reasons, while praising the security forces\u2019 work against Palestinian terrorism.<\/p>\n
Failure to enforce the law also carried international costs, he said, giving the Palestinians an advantage in the battle over Israel\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s handing the other side, the Palestinians, really an easy victory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Conricus said criticism from US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Israel and its West Bank communities, should prompt the government to reconsider its approach. Huckabee described those intimidating Palestinian-Americans as “terrorists.” <\/p>\n
Conricus nevertheless rejected the suggestion that Jewish extremist violence would itself be the decisive cause of a wider eruption in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be fair, if things erupt in Judea and Samaria, it won\u2019t be because of a few Jewish vigilantes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In his assessment, the greater danger would be a Palestinian Authority decision to abandon its diplomatic, legal and media campaigns against Israel in favor of armed violence. He said tens of thousands of armed Palestinian security personnel could pose a significant threat if they turned their weapons against Israel.<\/p>\n
Asked whether a different Israeli government could change the situation, Conricus said progress should be measured by police deployments, arrests, indictments and convictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state of Israel doesn\u2019t really want to address the issue,\u201d he said. \u201cAnother government could.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called for a clear decision on Israel\u2019s long-term intentions for the West Bank, including whether it sought to incorporate the territory into the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to define our own strategy, and if necessary, pay the relevant international price in order to pursue our security and national goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe state of Israel in its weakness to actually enforce law and order is shooting itself in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-613095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}