Israel, Gatekeepers and Tunnel Vision - by Dr. Aaron Lerner

...Ironically, the people screaming "PROTECT DEMOCRACY" are the ones arguing that the "gate keepers" should have the final say on what serves the public interest. That somehow it is not "democratic" for the political process to serve as the expression of the public interest.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
02 March '19..
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=73466

Years ago, before she was an MK, Shulamit "Shuli" Mualem-Rafaeli lobbied for IDF widows to continue to receive their pensions after remarrying (her own first husband Moshe was killed in the 1997 IDF helicopter disaster).

The proposed change to the rules was supported by all the decision makers who held their positions as a result of the democratic process - including the Minister of Defense.

The proposal was quashed by the legal counsel of the Ministry of Defense at a meeting she attended.

What legal grounds did the legal counsel of the Ministry of Defense cite for quashing the proposal?

He said if was a budget buster.

That's right.

The lawyer serving as legal counsel of the Ministry of Defense couldn't actually cite a legal issue with the proposal.

He just felt that he knew better what was in the public interest than a bunch of decision makers who held their positions as a result of the democratic process - including the Minister of Defense.

This, in a nutshell, is the fierce dispute over the proper role of the so-called "gate keepers".

Evidently the prison party’s over for Hamas and Fatah - by Ruthie Blum

The only question now is how long it will take the United Nations and the International Red Cross to condemn Israel for being a prison party-pooper.

Ruthie Blum..
JNS.org..
04 January '19..

At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan announced that the “party was over” for Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons.

It may be hard to believe that 6,000 Hamas and Fatah killers and handlers are living it up behind bars, particularly since they go on periodical hunger strikes to obtain better conditions. But Erdan’s list of new restrictions should put to rest any skepticism on that score.

The main bombshell he dropped on the failed suicide-bombers and successful stabbers who didn’t make it to Allah’s paradise was that they would stop being grouped in cell blocks according to their terrorist-organization affiliations.

“There will no longer be separate Hamas and Fatah wards,” he said, explaining that the current situation enables each group to become even more radicalized, to use their power against wardens and to make Israeli intelligence-gathering on their organizations’ activities extremely difficult.

Another terrorist prisoner benefit that is going to be revoked, according to Erdan, involves the flow of money that the prisoners receive from outside sources, such as the Palestinian Authority, which pays stipends to terrorists and their families from a “Martyrs’ Fund.” Today, each prisoner is allowed to receive up to NIS 1,600 (about $430) per month. What the prisoners have been doing is pooling the cash, and collectively purchasing groceries and other equipment with which to prepare their own meals, rather than eat the food provided by the Israel Prison Service (IPS).

(Continue to Full Column)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The continuing Gaza arson isn't a matter of operational failure. It is a moral, ethical failure. - by Uri Heitner

...This isn't a matter of operational failure. It is a moral, ethical failure. This is a government betraying its fundamental pact with its citizens – to assure their safety and security. Were the government to order the IDF to put an end to the arson campaign, and were that to fail – that would be an operational failure. An operational failure is legitimate because lessons can be learned from mistakes; you fix things and improve. The moral failure is unforgivable.

Uri Heitner..
Israel Hayom..
03 July '18..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/arson-response-is-a-moral-failure/

Our crops and fields have been burning for three months now. The western Negev is ablaze. For many long weeks, the people living there have been covered in smoke, breathing it. And the Israeli government is coming to terms with the situation, swallowing the heinous terrorist campaign.

The government has accepted the new equation on the Gaza border. It's okay to burn our fields, and if the IDF "responds" with warning shots near the terrorists – heaven forbid not at the terrorists themselves – they fire rockets at our communities at night.

To grasp the magnitude of the failure, we need to go back to the last "round" of fighting on the Gaza border, on May 29. Dozens of rockets and mortars were fired at our communities, and the IDF retaliated with airstrikes and artillery shelling. The "round" ended in a disgraceful Israeli defeat.

I'm not one of these overzealous types calling to "topple Hamas," "conquer the Gaza Strip," and "eliminate terror once and for all." These are populistic slogans. I don't believe in a "knockout punch" but in long-term deterrence. A low-intensity war doesn't provide a clear, unambiguous "victory image." Victory is measured over time. In this case, the result was immediately obvious – and dire.

The round ended in a cease-fire. In principle, a cease-fire is a positive result in that it means people stop shooting at one another. However, a cease-fire is a sham when dozens of fields and groves are being burned daily along the Gaza border.

The round concluded in a cease-fire that only addressed the rocket fire, not the incendiary kites. This means Israel is legitimizing this terrorist arson campaign so that if Israel responds to these attacks, it will have supposedly violated the cease-fire! This is an intolerable equation. A sovereign country cannot accept the burning of its fields and the scorching of an entire region, and it cannot "swallow" it. Those who launch incendiary kites deserve the same fate as those who launch rockets.

The Time Has Arrived for the Israeli Government to Defy the Supreme Court - by Ziv Maor

When the Supreme Court wants to strip the state of strategic assets, the government must stop the court’s interference. History shows it has happened in other democracies as well.

Ziv Maor..
MiDA..
08 January '18..
Link: http://en.mida.org.il/2018/01/08/time-israeli-government-defy-supreme-court/

The Security Cabinet’s decision recently to not return the bodies of terrorists, for now, and to continue using them as a bargaining chip against Hamas, could mark a new period in the state of governance in Israel.

The issue is much broader than Israel’s strategic position vis-a-vis Hamas. It touches on the strategic balance between the Israeli branches of government. This issue and the Cabinet’s decision, has the potential to remove the Courts and its emissaries from the anti-democratic positions of power they have taken on in recent decades.

The solution to the governance crisis that the State of Israel is facing is by defying the Supreme Court. Saying this leads immediately to a Pavlovian condemnation of the violation of the rule of law that such a position implies. However, the opposite is true. The ruling on the return of the terrorist bodies is clear proof of the loose connection between the written law, as legislated democratically by an elected Knesset, and the interpretations of the court.

With the principle that this court ruling dictates (and a previous ruling on the revocation of Israeli citizenship of Hamas representatives in the Palestinian parliament), judicial activism is, in effect, illegal.

The law, as it is currently worded, authorizes the army to bury enemy bodies in a temporary grave. Israel used this authority in order to hold on to the bodies as a bargaining chip. According to the absurd majority opinion in this ruling, this is not enough: the law needs to include explicit authorization to use the bodies of terrorists for bargaining.

So in the same sense, Israeli law does not authorize the court to annul laws. “Basic Law: The Judiciary” grants the Supreme Court authorization to discuss “matters that it deems necessary to provide judicial help and which are not within the jurisdiction of another court or tribunal,” but it does not allow for the cancellation of laws. Even without a ruling on the bodies of terrorists and Hamas representatives, there is a claim that the cancellation of laws by the Supreme Court is illegal. However, these verdicts, which demand explicit authorization down to the most minute detail, pull the rug out from under the entire law abolishing authority, one of the strongholds of the judiciary, in the war they have declared on the Israeli democracy.

The Two Bad Alternatives

What can the government do when the court rules in opposition to the law? Until now, the conversation around the terrorist verdict has settled around two alternatives:

Israel’s democratic crisis by Caroline Glick

...Israel faces a daunting threat environment. The good news is that we have the tools to handle the threats we face. The bad news is that so long as unelected officials in and out of government are able to subvert governing authority, these tools will never be used.

Caroline Glick..
Column One/JPost..
24 September '15..

On Wednesday night Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu touched on the most critical threat to Israeli democracy. Following Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan’s announcement that he was canceling Brig.-Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch’s appointment as inspector-general of the police due to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein’s refusal to approve it in a timely manner, Netanyahu said, “Our appointments process is harsh, prolonged, harmful, and without a doubt worthy of review.”

The power to appoint is the power to govern.

Without the power to appoint public servants, governments cannot develop patronage networks.

Although patronage has developed a bad reputation, all it really amounts to is the ability to ensure that officials appointed by a government are loyal to the government and as a result can be depended on to faithfully execute the policies of the government.

When appointments are controlled by unelected forces, elected officials cannot trust that public servants will implement their policies. Indeed, it is almost a given that they won’t.

In recent weeks various unelected forces have conspired to scuttle two senior governmental appointments.

In the first case, retired far-left Foreign Ministry officials sabotaged the government’s appointment of Dani Dayan to serve as ambassador to Brazil.

Alon Liel, a former director-general of the Foreign Ministry, and former ambassadors Ilan Baruch and Eli Bar Navi met with the Brazilian ambassadors to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and petitioned the Brazilian government to reject Dayan’s appointment.

Like the government that appointed him, Dayan does not support these former officials’ goal of surrendering full control over eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria. His position made him a target for Liel and his colleagues.

In an interview with Army Radio on Monday, Liel bragged that he’s been working for years to undermine the government’s ability to determine Israel’s foreign policy. Liel explained that as he and his friends see things, since the public doesn’t agree with them, Israeli democracy is illegitimate, and it is therefore legitimate for them to subvert it.

In his words, “I don’t expect my camp to control the government. If I thought my camp could win an election I would work within the Israeli system. My ideology won’t be able to win an election for the foreseeable future.”

So far their initiative has been a raving success.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff informed Netanyahu that she opposes Dayan’s appointment. If Netanyahu and the government insist on sending him to Brazil, they risk harming Israel’s bilateral relations with that key South American country.

And if Dayan is sent to Brazil now, he will likely be treated as persona non grata from the moment he lands in Brasilia.

For all their destructive power, Liel and his associates are small potatoes when compared to the legal fraternity.

With Hirsch’s scalp hanging from his wall, Attorney- General Yehuda Weinstein can take pride in the fact that he has blocked the government’s appointments to Israel’s two most powerful national security posts. In 2011 he forced the government to cancel Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant’s appointment to serve as IDF chief of General Staff.

Back then, Weinstein forced the government to cancel Galant’s appointment by refusing to defend it before the High Court of Justice when it was challenged by an environmental group. At the time, Weinstein acknowledged that there was no legal basis for his position, but he held it all the same, due to his (legally irrelevant) “ethical” concerns.

By forcing the government to abandon Galant – and now Hirsch – Weinstein has done more than simply undermine government authority.

He has sent the clear message to Israel’s security brass that they needn’t be beholden to the lawful orders they receive from the government. His is the only opinion that matters. He is their lord and master.

Not only is this a perversion of democratic norms, it is corrupt.

Finding Meaning While Living on the Edge of a Knife by Evelyn Gordon

...So even if, as Edward Grossman suggests, we today aren’t quite the giants our grandparents were, if necessary we will do the same in this case, too. Because if we aren’t willing to protect ourselves by ourselves, there’s really no reason to have a Jewish state at all.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
01 July '15..





Jews have long been able to thrive while under threat. Today’s Israelis, living in the face of a nuclear Iran, are the latest example

Note: This piece is a response to an essay by Edward Grossman

“Worried and Happy”: that was the title on the advance copy of Edward Grossman’s essay sent to me by Mosaic’s editors. Reading it, however, I couldn’t help feeling that for Grossman, Israel’s current mood is mainly worry and very little happiness. After all, about 90 percent of the essay focuses on a single major worry: Iran’s nuclear program. And Israel has no lack of other worries as well: Hamas, Hizballah, the Palestinian Authority, international isolation, the cost of living, Arab and ḥaredi integration, and on and on.

Nevertheless, I think the mood balance is actually the exact opposite. As Grossman himself notes, we in Israel don’t spend our days sitting around fretting about Iranian nukes falling on us; we’re too busy living, loving, creating, innovating, and otherwise building our modern miracle on the Mediterranean. That’s why Israel keeps scoring anomalously high on global happiness surveys; just this month, the OECD ranked it the fifth happiest country in the world, despite noting with some puzzlement that “by many measures, Israel is an outlier” in this group. Nor does this paradoxical insistence on being happy despite multiple threats stem from either masochism or oblivion; it’s rooted in some specific truths about the Iranian threat, but even more so in a general truth about the Jewish and Israeli experience.

For to be a Jew, of necessity, is to be capable of finding meaning and happiness even while living on a knife’s edge. Throughout history, Jews have experienced only intermittent periods of tranquility amid a multiplicity of threats. In biblical times, even great victories produced no more than “peace in the land for 40 years,” and most lulls were considerably briefer than that. In exile, the occasional golden ages were mere interruptions in an endless procession of expulsions and pogroms, in country after country. And in modern-day Israel, war has erupted roughly once a decade when it hasn’t come sooner. Thus, while threats obviously have to be prepared for and dealt with, Jews can’t afford to worry about them overmuch; if they did, they would have time to do little else.

Consequently, Jews have perforce perfected the art of thriving under threat. Amid wars, persecution, and expulsions, they produced the Bible and the Talmud, the great medieval commentaries and dazzling works of Jewish philosophy. Contemporary Israel has continued this tradition: amid wars, terror attacks, and threats of all sorts, it has absorbed immigrants and grown its economy, produced cutting-edge research and technological innovations. And all this is no less essential than preparing for the threats, because if Israel were ever to stop behaving in this way, it would shrivel and die of its own accord; no Iranian bomb would be needed to finish the job.

In short, despite being fully aware of the existential threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, Israelis instinctively understand that worrying about it more than necessary is counterproductive. And most Israelis have little need to worry about it at all.

Primarily, that’s because Iran is one of those rare issues where the general public neither can nor should have anything to say. There’s nothing Israelis can do, or ever could have done, to stop President Barack Obama from signing a bad deal with Iran; given how desperately he wants an agreement, the idea that a unity government in Jerusalem could somehow have persuaded him to plug holes in the deal that Tehran wants left open is wishful thinking. Barring a miracle, Israel’s decision will therefore ultimately boil down to whether or not to use military force against Iran. And since most Israelis lack the requisite highly classified knowledge of where Iran’s nuclear program really stands and what Israel’s military capabilities really are, the only individuals capable of deciding if and when Israel should bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities are the handful of senior government officials who do have this knowledge.

When a police chief simply misunderstands his role and is in over his head

...But it would appear that our police chief simply misunderstands his role and is in over his head. So let's spell it out for him as simply as possible: as a public servant, Mr. Danino, you are supposed to be serving the public, not the other way around.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
01 December '14..

Amid the political drama regarding the fate of the governing coalition, a spectacle no less crucial to the future of the Jewish state has gone largely overlooked.

In a series of public statements over the course of four consecutive days, Police Chief Yohanan Danino brazenly overstepped his position and authority, launching unprecedented verbal attacks on the attorney general, the Israeli Right and members of the Knesset.

Under heavy criticism in recent weeks for his failure to curb Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount and in eastern Jerusalem, Danino did what any bungling bureaucrat would do: he tried to pin the blame on everyone else but himself.

Speaking at a conference in Sderot, Israel's top cop denounced visits to the Mount by right-wing parliamentarians, suggesting that they had prompted Palestinian rioting. Furthermore, he asserted that anyone seeking to change Israeli policy at Judaism's holiest site should not be allowed to set foot there.

"Anyone who wants to change the status quo on the Temple Mount – it should be forbidden for him to go up there," Danino said, adding that, "I banned [Likud MK Moshe] Feiglin from ascending the Mount until I had no backing from the attorney general. This is a mistake, to allow someone who is a symbol of the movement to change the status quo [to ascend the Mount]."

In effect, our esteemed chief of police has just declared that those who support government policy on the Temple Mount may visit the site, while opponents should be barred from doing so. In other words, the exercise of one's fundamental rights and freedoms, at least in Danino's mind, should be directly linked to one's political views, and woe unto him who wishes to alter government policy.

This is an absolute outrage and it demonstrates that Danino doesn't understand the first thing about how a democracy functions. A person's inalienable rights, such as freedom of speech and worship, do not belong to Danino, the police or even the state. They are natural, God-given rights, and the state's role is to protect and uphold them. A Knesset member or ordinary citizen has the right to visit the Temple Mount regardless of his personal views vis-à-vis government policy. This is so obvious and self-evident that it should not need to be pointed out, particularly to the man who serves as Israel's chief law enforcement officer.

Not surprisingly, Danino's outrageous comments led MK Yuli Edelstein, the speaker of the Knesset, to send a letter to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch in which he rightly noted that "these statements are grave and inappropriate coming from a police commissioner about elected public officials. It is unacceptable that a public servant – as senior as the position may be – would question the freedom of movement of Knesset members."

Let Hamas maintain its monopoly on hysteria

...Hamas' strategy rests on rocket weapons and tunnels. They have both failed and been blocked. Hamas also plotted terrorist attacks from the sea and failed. The results it has obtained are comparatively pathetic, and its losses very heavy. Anyone who doubts that is welcome to watch the broadcasts of the hostile television networks: BBC, CNN, and the Palestinian and Hamas-run stations.

Dror Eydar..
Israel Hayom..
25 August '14..

Who said there is no plan? From the start the plan has been to ensure long-term quiet, based on weakening Hamas. You cannot tack on goals that never existed -- toppling Hamas or renewing the diplomatic process -- and then complain that they were not met.

Israel does not need to involve itself in the question of who should control Gaza. If Hamas wants to continue ruling, it must accept Israel's demands. For now, Gaza is being pummeled and senior Hamas leaders are being killed. Hamas itself is helping demilitarize the Strip by using up its supply of bombs. Despite the nonsense being tossed about, Hamas does not have the initiative; what it has is the choice of whether to continue taking a beating or accede to Israel's demands.

The Europeans, the Americans, and some on the Left want to bring down the Hamas regime -- not out of hate for Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal, but rather out of love for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a desire to restart negotiations. Abbas, too, wants to build himself up on the ruins of Hamas. Its desire notwithstanding, it is not a bad thing that Hamas remains weak in Gaza. It would be a living gravestone over the burial of the idea of a Palestinian state within spitting distance of the heart of Israel.

Big heroes have called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz "cowards." Unbelievable. The geniuses also said that "we wrecked the Israeli deterrence." Where did this come from? Do they have enough perspective to make an evaluation like that? Certainly not. So what is this drivel? Dubbing the Israeli leadership "cowardly" is actually a shot in the arm for Hamas.

On Thursday, asked about Israeli policy, Israel Prize laureate Professor Yehezkel Dror responded more or less that because he wasn't familiar with the intelligence, military, international and legal reports, he could not express a serious opinion that would not be considered rubbish.

Israel has fronts besides the southern one, and there, too, our enemies are waiting. Inside Israel, as well. And there is the complex international system: the U.N., Europe, and America, which is why Israel agreed to the multiple cease-fires. Israeli society, with all its different opinions, is also a factor that must be considered. Social unity and steadfastness are strategic assets.

We knew about the tunnels for years but not that they would be used?

...Oslo, retreat from the Gaza Strip and Philadelphi Corridor, "quiet for quiet", as well as the many initiatives to trade the Golan for a piece of paper that only failed because of an uncooperative Assad, are all illustrations of how policymakers had reasonably accurate technical information about security ramifications but chose to downgrade or ignore the information since the technically possible scenarios had yet to play out. As has been often said: our enemies tend to save us from our incompetence.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
19 July '14..




(Recording) Most important quote this year: Min. Livni: we knew about the tunnels for years but not that they would be used

This recording helps to provide a very important understanding as to how the very top of Israel's leadership analyzes situations and makes policy decisions.

Here is the guiding principle: "there is a difference between a problem that still hasn't taken place..."

To be clear: The decision makers in the Government of Israel can know that the enemy has developed a strategic capability (and in the case of the tunnels there can even be past experience in the use of tunnels against Israel), but the Government of Israel is only compelled to act against this strategic capability when the enemy uses it in a high profile operation.


http://youtu.be/fFGL8bcO1zU

At the time of this writing (Sunday morning) the IDF just discovered a major tunnel reaching inside Israel to Kibbutz Netiv Haasarah. If Hamas had accepted the ceasefire last week, that tunnel and the many others now being discovered would still be intact - waiting for use at a time that most serves the program of the enemy.

This revelation by Minister Livni should serve as a warning regarding the policy making process inside Israel.

It appears to be an approach that enables policymakers to make decisions that can ignore all the facts, all the dangers, all the threats - as long as they have not yet actually take place.

Oslo, retreat from the Gaza Strip and Philadelphi Corridor, "quiet for quiet", as well as the many initiatives to trade the Golan for a piece of paper that only failed because of an uncooperative Assad, are all illustrations of how policymakers had reasonably accurate technical information about security ramifications but chose to downgrade or ignore the information since the technically possible scenarios had yet to play out.

As has been often said: our enemies tend to save us from our incompetence.

Make a decision. The nation will support you

...It is appropriate for the police to recall former Police Commander Alik Ron. Thanks to him the Galilee is still in the hands of Israel. At the same time, it is best to forget now the Orr Commission. The IDF and its soldiers are required to go back out and protect the citizens in the ordinary sense of the word. The campaign must also be on the ground, and the public should prepare itself for the victims. This also is not something new.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
06 July '14..




Netanyahu is risking his leadership
Amnon Lord - Makor Rishon 6 July 2014
[IMRA translation with permission to translate and distribute from Amnon Lord]

If you are among the group of top security officials and passed the age of 50, the odds are good that you've seen everything. Or almost everything. The next round of violence, that you know for sure will come, is one that you have not yet seen. It is difficult to know what it will bring with it. But there is one sentence sitting on the shelf ready for such situations and it's the one that the veteran experts take with them to the studios: "You know how you go into war, but you do not know how to get out of it."

The news is that while the security elite veterans, especially those over age 60, have seen it all and are looking with an experienced weariness at the deterioration of the situation and know that nothing will change after this round, those lighting the Molotov cocktails on the Arab side remain always the same age. Not that they read the writings of the Minister of Finance, or Bob Dylan. But they are, "Young Forever". Between age 15 and 30. They are not tired like the former heads of Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet. And they throw Molotov cocktails, shoot and launch rockets like they were only born yesterday. They do not take into account the fact that the old timers have already seen it all since 1920.

So, you have to respond to them as if we haven't see anything. A quick and powerful strike in Gaza has become a necessity also to stem the flames on the outskirts of Jerusalem and Arab towns in the Triangle.

Prime Minister Netanyahu already entered a dangerous area of leadership. He is making a real effort to calm things down. He presented an ultimatum to Hamas, it is already difficult to remember when he gave it: cease-fire within 48 hours. That's exactly what Ehud Barak did as Prime Minister 14 years ago in the early days of the second intifada, when he presented an ultimatum to Arafat. He didn't honor his own ultimatum and his leadership disintegrated. The destruction and helplessness experienced by the Israeli public in September 2000 to the end of that year, with Barack at the top, the current defense minister serving as Deputy Chief of Staff and the current Chief of Staff Gantz serving as commander of IDF forces in Judea and Samaria, broke Barak's leadership and with it an entire group in the political system. This lesson must stand before Netanyahu and Ya'alon today.

Now the fire is burning along the seam lines within Israeli sovereignty. We do not see a rampage-style intifada in Hebron or other areas of Judea and Samaria. It is a sign that there is a guiding hand behind the riots...

Heeding the last bit of advice - Count to 10, and act in full force

...We need courageous leadership to look at the big picture and understand that the terrorist armies and states around us are an existential threat. The answer is hard and painful to hear. There, without responding tempestuously, without making empty promises and threats, we have no choice but to eliminate Hamas in Gaza, from its leadership down to the very last of its terrorists. No pinpoint assassinations, no increasing our deterrence, no special operation -- a war over our right to exist.

Zvika Fogel..
Israel Hayom..
02 July '14..

I have never received so much advice, directly or indirectly. The bombardment of counsel did not pass me over. "Control your temper," "Don't make decisions while your blood is still boiling," "Show restraint," "Count to 10," were just some of the suggestions the pundits have showered upon us. I decided to answer the challenge, and at least heed the last bit of advice by counting to 10:

1. Three yeshiva students, who were on their way home after a day of classes, paid the price for not internalizing, not understanding and willfully ignoring the need to truly acknowledge the vicious enemy, which has declared its goal of destroying us.

2. Two weeks ago, a 12-year-old boy, who on his first day of summer break joined his father at work on the Golan Heights, was killed by a missile fired from Syrian territory. This followed dozens of shooting incidents of various types toward communities, civilians and soldiers in that sector.

3. Since Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza in 2012, more than 180 rockets have been fired at Israel, an average of 10 per month. Deterrence was not achieved.

4. In that time, 10 rockets have been fired at Israel from Sinai. One soldier and one civilian have been killed in attacks perpetrated by global jihadists and al-Qaida. Sinai has become a breeding ground and safe haven for vagabond terrorist groups, motivated by a religious ideology resolutely aimed at harming us.

5. The hundreds of underground smuggling tunnels connecting Sinai to Gaza and the dozens of vessels and arms shipments are a testament to the financial aid and encouragement Hamas and Hezbollah receive from Arab states that support the extermination of Israel.

The message needs to be clear and convincing

...The Israeli government must make courageous decisions in order to end the campaign of murder undertaken by the haters of Israel. We came back to the land of Israel so that Jewish blood would never again be forfeit. This is the leadership's duty toward the citizens of the country, toward the victims of terror and the thousands of years of Jewish history.

Dr. Haim Shine..
Israel Hayom..
01 July '14..

All of Israel was overcome by grief and pain after receiving the news that the bodies of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel had been found. An entire people, normally divided, identified with the cries of the mothers, and with their dignity and courage in hope and prayer. These have been rare days of unity, which rose from the ancient spring of mutual assurance. Who can know the pain in a mother's heart after losing a child, and who can understand the soul of a father weeping for his son, taken as a sacrifice on the altar of Israel's resurrection in its land.

The War of Independence is still not over; we must still pay the price of freedom. These pure and innocent boys join the multitude of Jews who gave their lives for our right to live as free people in our land.

After 2,000 years, we returned from an extended and terribly costly exile. We believed the return to Zion would put an end to the bloodshed that had become our lot on foreign soil. We hope that our matriarch Rachel would finally be able to stop crying for her lost sons. Yet we are still unable to rest in tranquility. For many years we have had to fight in the city, the village, at home and on the front lines against enemies and evil-wishers that have risen against us.

The people of Israel must contend with people who lack humanity. The difference between them and predatory animals is miniscule at best, because animals usually avoid killing their own species; but our enemies are willing to slaughter anything in their path for the sake of glorifying the sword and their brutal religion. Throughout the Middle East, the sword of God spills blood without pause.

Israeli response to kidnapping: Baal Habayit Lo Hishtagea but...

...Not having the tremendous responsibility of the decision makers it is easy to suggest a "shot from the hip" idea. But one thing is clear: baal habayit lo hishtagea. And I can't help but wonder if that sends the wrong message to our enemies.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
25 June '14..

I don't envy Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the others on his team as they struggle to address the kidnapping of three Israeli boys.

It's a tremendous responsibility.

Viewing the situation from the outside and without the benefit of the information they have, it appears that "baal habayit lo hishtagea" (the person in charge hasn't gone crazy) in reaction to the kidnapping.

Because if baal habayit hishtagea (the person in charge has gone crazy) there would be special forces teams grabbing people in Gaza in the middle of the night for questioning. Special forces teams with instructions that in the event of resistance they should opt to use whatever force necessary to insure that Israeli casualties are kept to an absolute minimum.

If baal habayit hishtagea there would be Israeli reports each morning of who was "detained" for questioning from Gaza and Palestinians reports of who died resisting detention.

Already past the time to draw new lines

...Only a measure such as this will clarify to Abbas and his cohort that the rules of behavior have changed, that "here they absolutely cannot" make innocent civilians military targets, and that anyone involved in crimes against humanity -- will rot in prison until the end of their days. Only when the release of these murderers ceases to be discussed in any forum, will the deterrence against such acts against our civilians begin to be restored.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky..
Israel Hayom..
17 April '14..

In 1928 my grandfather, my namesake, wrote in an article that the "character of a person is not black and is not white; it is the result of the relation between appetite and ability. Man has appetites and he seeks to fill them by turning to the path of least resistance. If the resistance is too great, the person says to himself that the benefit is not worth the cost and he forgoes his desires. But because he sees a lack of resistance, he says to himself: 'Here I can…' The most poisonous venom capable of infecting the virtue of man is the phrase 'here I can.' Any place where this term is valid, virtue is noneffective."

He came to this insight from historical examples, such as the difference between the Belgians' behaviors in their own country as opposed to in the Congo. Ergo his conclusion that the idea of turning the other cheek should never be adopted, under any circumstances. Restraint and failing to respond in kind to acts of aggression was unacceptable in his view, because it not only falls short of instilling the attacker with shame and restraint, it actually does the opposite -- it encourages him to act more aggressively because he feels that "here he can." In his opinion, this was the reason behind the persecution and pogroms against the Jews in the Diaspora. It is according to this principle that we must conduct our stately affairs, if we want to stay alive.

The Palestinians have become accustomed to thinking "here we can," and murder peaceful civilians if they are Jewish, which is why such acts of slaughter are not seen by them as murder or crimes against humanity. They justify it with the whitewashed Arabic word "muqawama" (meaning resistance). The most recent incident occurred, to our sorrow, on Passover eve, when Israel Police Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi was murdered by a terrorist.

It is impossible not to connect this murder with the release of the Palestinian prisoners (including of course those with "blood on their hands"). Therefore the responsibility for the murder falls on the perpetrators, but the creation of the climate among the Palestinians for such acts falls on the entire Israeli government, which agreed to turn the other cheek to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, so that he could do Israel the honor of sitting down for empty talks only to eventually spit in our face by implementing unilateral measures. All this in complete violation of an agreement with Israel he signed personally in Washington on September 13, 1993.

The government of Israel and its legal advisers - Who is the real ruler?

It is time to bring back legal advisers to an advisory role – not a decision-making role.

Dan Illouz..
A Fresh Perspective/JPost..
26 September '13..

One of the central questions that can help us understand whether a certain regime should be considered a democracy is: “Who is making the final decisions?” In a democracy, decisions are made by elected officials representing the people, thus allowing the people to rule themselves – even if it is done indirectly.

In a dictatorship, the people making the final decisions are not elected. In many dictatorships, you might still have elections, and even a functioning parliament. However, the final say on all issues is given to a supreme leader who is not elected. This leader can be a religious leader, such as the ayatollahs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It can also be a secular leader, such as President Bashar Assad in Syria. However, this leader has the final veto power to decide what can or cannot be done.

It is important to note right from the start that what defines a regime as truly democratic is not the content of the decisions; dictators can make good decisions, while democracies can lead to horrible decisions. However, what defines whether a regime is democratic is the identity of the person making the decisions.

In Israel, intense judicialization of politics has made it almost impossible for legislators or for the executive branch to make certain decisions.

This judicialization is characterized by increased intervention of the courts in political decisions, a phenomenon which was the subject of one of my previous columns. However, there is also another phenomenon which is no less important in this process, which takes power away from the elected officials and gives it to the bureaucratic branch of government. This phenomenon is the increased intervention of legal advisers in political decisions.

In this column, I want to look at the structure of the roles of legal advisers in Israel in order to understand how problematic it is and why it should be changed.

Those who simply refuse to let reality interfere with their agenda

When I started to write this commentary I intended to simply suggest that it was important that future policy makers never forget this harrowing period. But what about those currently engaged in advocating and setting policy? Are they already ignoring what has been unfolding before our eyes?

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA Weekly Commentary..
22 August '13..




We are in the middle of a nightmare.

Most of which is most definitely not of our doing.

Though our own mistakes (retreat from Gaza, etc.) haven't helped matters.

And what a nightmare it is.

When I started to write this commentary I intended to simply suggest that it was important that future policy makers never forget this harrowing period.

But what about those currently engaged in advocating and setting policy? Are they already ignoring what has been unfolding before our eyes?

Mr. President, Israel has a Government.

Shoshana Bryen..
American Thinker..
15 March '13..




That's something to remember when you arrive there next week.

Israel has a government, elected by its people in a free, fair, open and democratic election. Multiple parties representing widely divergent points of view met a wildly diverse electorate through free media and open debate. This is no stultified two-party affair with a libertarian insurgency.

Israel will be the only country you visit in the region, this time or any other, that has a fully democratic system. Do not be swayed by the "apartheid" slander. Citizens of Israel are Jews, Moslems, Christians, and Druze, each with religious and non-religious elements. Their background is Ethiopian, Russian, North and South American, European, and derived from every country of the Arab world plus Persia; watch Rita before you go. There are left and right-wingers, socialists and capitalists. (Surprise: some of the socialists are right wing and some of the capitalists are left wing, since left and right in Israel are not only economic values, but relate to land and security. Some of the security hawks are economic leftists.) Every single one of them has a vote -- and they use it.

Remember, the Palestinians could have had that, too. Or could they? Abbas's single elected term ran out in January 2009; people who stay after that are dictators, not "elected leaders." Journalists and protests against PA corruption are stifled with an increasingly heavy hand. Hamas is overtly intolerant of the Christian minority in Gaza, and the West Bank's Christians are leaving as well; the brave ones talk about why. A key Palestinian demand is that territory they may one day have for a state must be Judenrein. Why would they think you would find that acceptable?

The new Israeli government will be without the Haredi parties, but don't mistake that for a government without religious members. The new government will be focused on income inequality, debt, unemployment, and the distribution of the burdens of citizenship, but don't mistake that for a government without red lines on security -- with the Palestinians, with Iran and increasingly with Syria/Lebanon. The new government contains many members who are skeptical of progress with the Palestinians, but don't mistake that for lack of interest in peace. There are members of the government who believe in a "two state solution," but don't mistake that for 1967 borders. Jerusalem is a point of consensus in a country where consensus comes hard.

Israel's been there before - Let the elected officials do their job

Ze'ev Jabotinsky..
Israel Hayom..
16 August '12..

The current atmosphere in Israel is comparable to that experienced by Israelis in the three weeks leading up the 1967 Six-Day War. The public was confused and frightened by the growing threat posed by Arab armies on three fronts. As a child, I also experienced this fear.

In the summer of 1963, Levi Eshkol established his government and served as both prime minister and defense minister. As soon as he entered the Defense Ministry, he saw that Israel was being threatened with destruction on all fronts simultaneously. He called in the General Staff and gave them the mission of meeting this challenge head on, and asked the army generals to tell him what was vitally needed to fulfill this mission. Eshkol made sure to equip the army with everything it needed so that the mission would succeed, even when the country went into a deep recession in 1966.

During the build up to the Six-Day War, when the reservists were already called up, a public campaign was launched to remove Eshkol from the Defense Ministry and appoint Moshe Dayan in his place. Dayan made cynical use of the public's lack of awareness of the army's preparations and didn't stop the campaign, which was supported by the Haaretz newspaper. The campaign was successful and Dayan replaced Eshkol as defense minister just one week before the war started.

In my honest opinion, Levi Eshkol was the best prime minister Israel has ever seen because he identified the threats and dangers in plenty of time and got the country ready to face an existential threat. The results of that war are mostly to his credit, while we paid the price for the terrible choice of Dayan six years later with the Yom Kippur War.

'We have entered the phase of strategic decisions': A trip report from Israel

John Hannah..
foreignpolicy.com..
07 August '12..

I recently returned from a trip to Israel. I met with a handful of very senior foreign policy and defense officials, but did not speak with any member of the "Forum of Eight" -- Israel's security cabinet that is responsible for key decisions concerning war and peace. With that important caveat, I thought I'd share several random impressions:

First, Israelis realize full well that they're in the middle of a geo-political hurricane. The pillars that have anchored their national security strategy for a generation are being washed away, swamped by a rising tide of Islamism. The Egypt of Sadat, Mubarak and Camp David is no more. Jordan, Israel's other critical peace partner, is under enormous strain. The once vibrant military relationship with Turkey has withered. Syria is awash in blood, raising the specter of loose WMD, a jihadist safe haven, and generalized chaos on what for nearly four decades (despite the Assad regime's enduring hostility) has been Israel's quietist front. All this, of course, on top of the pre-existing threat of Hezbollah in Lebanon with 50,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal, and patrons in Tehran hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons with which to terrorize the Middle East in service to their particularly virulent brand of anti-Zionism.

Second, while deeply concerned with the turmoil that surrounds them, Israeli officials exude a degree of quiet confidence that they can weather this storm. I detected no sense of panic, but rather a steely-eyed determination to do what was necessary to secure Israel's core interests. Given the degree of uncertainty inherent in the current regional upheavals, it would be an exaggeration to say that Israelis are yet at the point of developing any new grand strategy. But one can discern some basic principles that have emerged to help navigate the turbulence that will continue to roil the region for the foreseeable future. Three in particular stand out:

Dispute on Iran between Israeli defense establishment and leadership? The bottom line.

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
24 July '12..




Technical note on the dispute on Iran between Israeli defense establishment and leadership

The Israeli defense establishment is no doubt a reliable source of information and estimates regarding the technical aspects of Israel’s military capabilities as well as the military capabilities of Israel’s enemies.

They know what equipment both sides have and how this equipment is deployed (and shielded).

And if given a set of assumptions as to how the actors will use their equipment in a given scenario, they can make reasonable assessments as to the outcome.

They can even “test” different Israeli plans to compare their outcomes.

The problem is that, at least as far as one can derive from the publicly available assessments, the Israeli defense establishment has a miserable record in coming up with a reasonable set of assumptions regarding the behavior of the actors.

And this has served to dangerously taint their recommendations.

A reminder: the very same Israeli defense establishment experts who have prepared recommendations regarding Iran only recently were recommending that Israel rush to hand over the Golan to President Assad.