by Minister Orit Strook, Religious Zionist Party, translated by Hillel Fendel.
With only a few days left before the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan, Israel still has a chance to rectify its preparations. Israeli government minister Orit Strook says the goal must be to reduce – not enhance – the ability of the terrorists to attack us. This is an adaptation of her article, which first appeared in Besheva.
All eyes are now peeled towards the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and the terrorist attacks if often brings. US President Biden has said he is hoping for a deal to stop the fighting in Gaza before Ramadan, Defense Minister Galant is warning of a "Ramadan drift" [apparently referring to an upswing in terrorism], and the general public is fretfully weary of what the month might have in store.
For very long, Ramadan has been a time of tribulations, pogroms and Jewish bloodshed. Its dangers have kept many of our security strategists awake at nights – but for some reason their preparations for the month have often, including this year, been the opposite of what simple logic would dictate.
Every year, this crazy cycle seems to repeat itself. The IDF, Shabak and police all know that every year, Ramadan is a month of terrorist attacks. So what do they do in response? Set up more checkpoints? Arrest and detain known agitators? Not quite. Would-be terrorists held as administrative detainees are actually being released, and as it stands now, Arabs from the PA-controlled areas will be allowed to enter Jerusalem and pray at the Temple Mount.
Probably worst of all is that throughout Judea and Samaria, checkpoints that generally help prevent terrorist attacks are now being taken down – as "Ramadan gestures" to the Muslim population. As if it weren't crystal clear that these gestures will be taken advantage of to attempt to carry out attacks…
This very message is written in blood all over the highways of Judea and Samaria - yet still the security bodies insist on holding this same ceremony of removing the checkpoints every year. And then, when serious attacks resume, right on cue, the restrictions that had been removed are put right back in place. The announcement is usually made as families, friends and neighbors make their way to the victims' funerals. This has been, more or less, the same script for the past number of years; though to be fair, not every single year were restrictions eased, and even when there were, not every year were they then canceled. Over the past decade, restrictions were eased, then reinstalled, or nearly so, three times in the past decade – much too many times.
Great pressures were exerted on the Cabinet ministers to allow Arab workers from Judea and Samaria to enter pre-'67 Israel. But to their credit, they withstood and did not cave to the bullying. Even the dangerous "pilot" program to this effect was not carried out, in the merit of the strong stance of the Cabinet members, and their sincere and responsible concern for the citizens of Israel.
But within Judea and Samaria – there the story is different. No one asks the Cabinet whether to enable free travel to Arabs of all stripes, without checks, on our traffic routes, adjacent to our communities, into our gas stations [in one of which, two Israelis were murdered last week]. These areas are apparently over and beyond, somewhere in the mountains of darkness, a type of no-man's-land where - even though more than a half-million Jews live there and another half-million travel there each day – only the "security bodies" determine how to get ready for Ramadan. And the way it decides is the way it has decided for years: in accordance with the "conception." [This refers to the preconceived and unchallenged notions that Israel "owned" Hamas, that Hamas was "deterred," and that infinite periodic rounds of limited battle with Hamas would keep the terrorists at bay with no need to ever make the hard decision to go to all-out war.]
But, as we see, it seems that even taking the "conception" route can reach new heights. And so it happened that last week – even as we were in the midst of mourning our two latest terrorism victims, shocked at the intolerable ease with the terrorist murderer was able to arrive by car carrying a lethal weapon to his chosen spot for his attack - and while we had still barely absorbed the significance of the fact that he was a PA "policeman" previously imprisoned for terrorist activity – as if all this was not enough, we suddenly hear of something even more ludicrous and incomprehensible: that dozens of terrorists, or would-be terrorists, not yet charged with crimes but held administratively, will actually be freed from their cells and sent home to their towns and villages throughout Judea and Samaria, to celebrate the "get out of jail" festivities that await them there.
The eye reads these reports, the ear hears them, but the brain refuses to believe that they can possibly be true. After all, just three months ago we convened – the entire government – for an all-night meeting to debate whether to accept a deal of a very similar nature: the release of low-grade terrorists in exchange for the return of our women and children being held in cruel Hamas captivity. Some voted in favor, some voted against, but the deliberations were sincere and intense, and all understood that there was no getting around the fact that such a release, even if it would achieve the goal of returning [some of] the hostages, would surely mean a supportive backwind for further terrorism. And then, behold, just a short time later, the "security establishment" makes such decisions all by itself, and releases dozens of terrorists – on the eve of Ramadan, to boot.
And while we try to rub our eyes in disbelief, they tell us that the terrorists are only under administrative detention and that they were about to be released within a month in any event, and that the planned release has nothing to do with any Ramadan gesture. Then why are they doing it? Because, they say, of overcrowding in the prisons. Let's say that this is true. But – first of all, if so, how about releasing the Jewish administrative detainees? [A District Court is about to hear a suit demanding just that, in light of the planned release of Palestinian terrorists.]
Secondly, if there's no room in the jails, is there room in our cemeteries for the victims of the attacks? And in our hospitals, for the wounded? Let the terrorists crowd themselves in a bit, and leave a little room in our cemeteries. Yes, I know that the Supreme Court has ruled on a minimum amount of space per prisoner – but there's a war going on, and there is terrorism, and there is Ramadan, in which every step we take that encourages terrorism has an exponential factor, and it costs us in blood.
It is very important for me to clarify: Not one of the decision makers is indifferent in any way to our security. Very much the opposite: These are people with values, with courage, who love the Jewish People, who are super-dedicated to our security, and are willing to sacrifice their lives for us, work day and night for the cause, and cry no less than we do over our dead and wounded.
But what? They are captive to the "conception" of Ramadan, whose mistaken operating instructions continue to direct their actions and decisions, and don't allow the facts to confuse them. And so they take the exact opposite course of what is required, endangering the nation they love and are convinced they are doing the best for.
During the Sin of the Golden Calf, about which we read in our weekly Torah portion this past week, Aharon the High Priest most certainly had the best of intentions when he unwittingly facilitated the fashioning of the giant idol. Rashi explains that he was simply trying to stall until his brother Moshe would descend from the mountain. He figured that when he would ask the women for their gold and silver, they would not rush to give… and all sorts of other calculations, all of which were for the sake of Heaven, in order to prevent idol-worship. But despite his best intentions, we know what happened in the end: A golden calf around which the people danced and worshiped.
Today, as then: All their best intentions are truly good and from loving and concerned hearts – but their decisions will be made based on the mistaken and so-dangerous "conception." There are just a few days left for them to fix their errors, and to truly and properly prepare for Ramadan, based on the catastrophic statistics of the past few years that showed more terrorist attacks and more dead Jews. The idea is to reduce the terrorists' abilities to get to us, not to expand them. This is our obligation, this is our responsibility, and this is what we must do.
Ramadan this year falls in the month of Purim, and therefore we must ensure the fulfillment of the verse, "contrary to what was decreed, the Jews ruled over their enemies."
Together, we will win!