Israel News Analysis: The Price of Life

[Based on article by Assaf Mishnayot, originally published in Hebrew in Besheva, edited and translated by Hillel Fendel]

The IDF plans to cut 70 positions in the civil security framework in Judea and Samaria during the course of 2019, continuing the trend of previous years. These cost-saving measures mean simply that "we won't be able to protect the Jewish communities," says a senior Shomron Regional Council official.

These are difficult times for the security sector in Judea and Samaria. Last month saw several fatal and near-fatal terrorist attacks, and just this past week, the civilian emergency squad of the community of Adei Ad suffered a near-deadly ambush by hundreds of Arab rioters. The team was then taken to task in the media by radical elements for opening fire and killing one of the attackers – a terrorist who has served time in Israeli prison.

The vast majority of the hundreds of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria are simply not reported by the media. In Shomron alone, there were 691 such attacks during 2018 – an average of nearly two a day.

Can this unacceptable rate be lowered? Officials of the Shomron Regional Council feel that a major contributory factor is a long series of cuts that have been made over the past years to the Jewish towns' security apparatus. Among other things, various IDF battalions that used to be stationed permanently in the area have disappeared, the numbers of soldiers in the remaining brigades have been reduced, and the budgets of the civil security officers have been cut.

In addition, we have now learned that over the course of 2019, the IDF is expected to do away with another 70 positions in community protection. Specifically, the practice of stationing soldiers from all over the army for week-long stints in the communities will be pared down drastically. Why? Because it costs money.

Yossi Dagan, Head of the Shomron Regional Council: "Top commanders tell me privately that they don't have the budget to do the job properly, and they can't understand the logic behind the cuts. These cuts have made their jobs impossible. This is simply contempt for the lives of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria."

The ramifications are simply that "we won't be able to protect the Jewish communities," a senior Shomron Regional Council official told B'Sheva. "We are getting the sense that they are making cold financial calculations that it is cheaper for some people to die than to allocate budgets to protect the communities. I know that sounds quite harsh, but this is what it looks like to us."

"This is how it works," the official said: "A series of attacks is carried out, and the Defense Minister – whoever it is at the time – promises more money for protection. After a few weeks, when the hubbub about the attacks has died down, the promises for money also die down. Two years ago we were promised 20 million shekels for protection on the roads – which never came. For this coming year, there were promises to upgrade protection around communities in extra danger, but the money has already been diverted elsewhere."

The would-be allocations for 2019 included money for upgrading the radar equipment and cameras around certain communities. The equipment is close to 20 years old, yet has never been revamped, and its effectiveness has been seriously hampered.

Peace Has Not Yet Arrived

"Some people think that peace has already arrived, and that no further money need be invested in security," says Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. "We are missing a tremendous sum, more than 400 million shekels, for security defense throughout the district. Top-ranking commanders say clearly that they can't protect us with the budgets they are given. Everyone knows this, yet no one transfers the needed funds. The result is that families have to bury their loved ones. This can simply not be allowed to continue."

Asked who specifically is responsible, Dagan says it is the Defense Ministry, responsible for budgeting; the Civil Administration, which governs the area administratively; and the IDF General Command (Matkal). "We have no complaints against the army itself, which is doing what it can, but they have been stretched to the limits of their capabilities. The reduction in forces comes straight from the office of the Matkal."

A senior military figure in the Shomron says that without deterrence, "the terrorists see no reason not to try to carry out attacks. But the current level of forces deployed here, which is less than the necessary minimum, simply does not create this deterrence. Offensive operations cannot be initiated because the forces are needed for defense. Add to this the fact that when a terrorist is arrested, the PA pays him a nice salary while he is incarcerated in dream-like conditions, and you can see that our ability to bring about deterrence is basically zero."

Two months ago, a letter by the head of the IDF Central Command Operations Branch, Col. Alon Madenes, was published. He essentially made the same points: "In my opinion, too many Israelis have been killed and wounded over the last two years, causing me to wonder whether we have fulfilled our mission. In the Southern Command and the Northern Command, the answer is clearly yes, but in the Central Command [mostly Judea and Samaria], the dozens of Israeli dead and wounded determine unequivocally that the answer is no."

Dagan says he would sign on to every word in that letter - and more than that: "Top commanders tell me privately that they don't have the budget or the tools to do the job properly, and that they can't understand the logic behind the cuts. They're doing everything they can, but these cuts have made their jobs impossible. This is simply contempt for the lives of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria."

Ignoring a Solution

The Civil Administration's share of the blame lies in its refusal to allow the confiscation of land for security purposes. Many fences that surround Jewish towns are not complete, enabling Arab terrorists to make their way in with little difficulty. Why are the fences not completed? Because the Civil Administration does not allow construction on land categorized as privately Arab-owned.  The Regional Council recently attempted to build a fence in the Barkan Industrial Area, but the Administration tore it down.

It's not that the confiscation solution is a secret. This past October, just a few hours after the Barkan terrorist attack in which two Jews were cruelly murdered by a fellow worker from the PA areas, a senior Administration official showed up and asked why this solution is not being implemented. Soon afterwards, the army submitted an official request for a military confiscation, but nothing has yet changed on the ground.

Another problem this foot-dragging has caused is in the number of entrances to the Industrial Zone. Currently there are exactly two – for the more than 5,000 Arab workers who must be checked every morning. Central Command sources say this leads to not a few situations in which not every worker can be thoroughly checked – and in fact this was the reason the weapon used in the above lethal attack was not found in time. Another four entrances must be opened, the army says, but the Civil Administration has not given authorization for this.

"The severity of the threat can barely be overstated," says a civil-security commander of one of the communities. "The residents  are in constant fear that someone will break into their house in the middle of the night and do what happened to the Fogel family a few years ago [the parents and three children were brutally murdered]."

The IDF Spokesman issued the following response: "For security reasons we cannot go into detail regarding the changes in deployment of forces, but we can note that the IDF has a variety of technological, intelligence, and operational tools in effect at all times in the region. Similarly, the IDF's operational deployment plan for 2019 includes an entire array of security components and deployment of forces in all sectors, including Judea and Samaria."

Despite these developments, close to 500,000 Jews have made Judea and Samaria their home by choice and lead productive lives in blossoming communities of varied sizes and cultural leanings. Regional and Town Council Heads have pledged to lobby the government to increase budgets for security and certainly not reduce them.