Stop the Iranian Arms Smuggling from Jordan into Israel!

by Shai Alon, Mayor of Beit El, translated by Hillel Fendel.

These past two weeks provided several close-up opportunities for us to learn about a matter that has been of great concern for many years. It is something that the mayors of municipal councils and towns in Yosh (Judea and Samaria) have long been loudly warning about. I'm referring to the smuggling of large amounts of weapons, from Iran and elsewhere, into Judea and Samaria – for use against local pioneering Jews, and also in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

We saw in recent days and weeks a failed suicide terrorist in Tel Aviv; the elimination of Asin al Makdah in Lebanon, who together with his brother ran an arms smuggling operation into Yosh; and clear indications of anti-personnel mines among PA elements in Yosh. 

This is not a new phenomenon that we never knew about. It is rather something that has simply been not attended to sufficiently. Old Israel – i.e., Israel before Oct. 7th – acted in a tactical, local, and insufficient manner against the well-planned Iranian strategy that is gradually headed towards massive arming of the Arabs of Yosh and the terror organizations there. 

Old Israel, which carried out the successful Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, followed it by entering a phase of relative passivity vis-à-vis the terrorists. It thus bought a measure of quiet in Yosh, at the price of the continued entry of weapons and armed terrorists into the region. These policies of the past 20 years have brought us to a situation in which the IDF is unable to enter the PA villages without facing concrete threats to the lives of our soldiers. 

All these years, Israel preferred to avoid friction, and what we received was a threat many times larger than what we would have faced had we acted as we should have against the Iran/Jordan/PA smugglings into Judea and Samaria. 

Some ten days ago, the miraculous failure of a terrorist to detonate a suitcase full of explosives inside a packed Tel Aviv synagogue is an example of the sad reality in Yosh: Hamas and Islamic Jihad are recruiting more and more terrorists to their ranks in Judea and Samaria, as opposed to in Gaza, and are using advanced weaponry to carry out major attacks on civilian targets. 

The failed attack in Tel Aviv is actually a success from their standpoint, because of the fact that the terrorist was able to penetrate so deeply into "little Israel" with a large amount of explosives without being detected. The calamity that was avoided thanks to Divine Providence attests, more than ever, to the danger that our security forces face in Judea and Samaria. This was not an unusual incident, but rather a dangerous precedent. 

It is now the turn of "new Israel," the post-Oct. 7th Israel, to act differently and to take the bull by the horns. This could be the great opportunity of the still-new IDF Central Commander, Gen. Avi Blut, to take charge of our eastern border, through which many weapons have been smuggled, and make an essential change. True, we're engaged in a war already. But the State of Israel, and particularly its security establishment, may not allow themselves to take its eyes off this major strategic threat. 

The Arabs of Yosh's Jordan Valley, on the Jordanian border, have the will, intention, and ability to supply terrorists with many weapons and powerful charges. It is incumbent upon the security forces in the area to step up their offensives against the terrorist bodies that are increasingly establishing themselves as a leading arena in Judea and Samaria. The IDF must encircle the city centers, go from house to house, and simply clean them out of all weapons. The terrorists in Yosh must not be allowed to feel safe in their homes or in their market places. We must strengthen and reinforce the eastern border, and we must establish systems for identification, monitoring and warning, even as our ongoing security activities continue alongside it.

The current reality leaves us no choice. Israel must carry out a wide-ranging operation, as we have been calling for even before the current war began, and as is just as applicable and relevant even now. 

If not, the calamity that was averted in Tel Aviv will return to plague us in a different locale, but with horrific consequences, Heaven forbid. In order for this not to happen, we must truly internalize how explosive the situation is at present, take strong action against the smuggling, and search for and collect all the smuggled-in, dangerous weapons in Judea and Samaria.  

The recent successful liquidation of a smuggler in Lebanon must be the opening shot for "new Israel" and new, take-the-initiative policies to effectively answer our security needs.

The Dangers of the Narrow Waistline in Israel

Adapted from an article by journalist and former Likud MK Yossi Achimeir translated by Hillel Fendel.

Not many people remember that until 57 years ago, before 1967, Israel did not rule over Judea and Samaria. And yet, even so, no Palestinian state existed in these areas, nor was there a demand for one.

Actually, of course, an independent Palestinian state never existed in history, in Judea and Samaria or anywhere else. The areas west of the Jordan River were long known as the West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and no one ever demanded that they be "liberated," or become home to an independent country.

King Hussein, the monarch of Jordan from 1953 until his death in 1999, was a ruler who did not tolerate insurgency. Any hint of a possible rebellion against the Hashemite Kingdom was immediately put down with an iron fist by the Jordanian Legion. Mercy played no role.

When the Six Day War broke out, King Hussein made the mistake of his life by joining up with the armies of Egypt and Syria against Israel – leading to his loss of Judea, Samaria, and of course, eastern Jerusalem and environs.

What happened was that the Legion fired mortar shells from the area of Kalkilye towards Tel Aviv; nearby Kibbutz Bahan, east of Netanya, was heavily bombarded in the process. Israel did not hesitate, and not only repelled the attacks, but conquered the entire area.

Why was the response so sharp and immediate? Because the Jordanian attack represented a major threat to divide the Jewish State into two parts, north and south. Only about 15 kilometers separate Netanya from the former Green Line that marked the border between Israel and Jordan. By repelling the Jordanian offensive, Israel ended up the war in control not only of Sinai, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, but also of all of Judea and Samaria (Yesha). By removing the threat from Jordan, this became the greatest of Israel's victories over her enemies.

We're now 57 years later, and reminders of the acute dangers we faced at the beginning of the Six Day War are again on our radar screen. The reminders come in the form of growing threats, but also in a more passive form: the sign at a new monument in memory of Captain Assaf Master of Kibbutz Bahan. Master was killed at the beginning of the current war while battling Palestinian terrorists in northern Gaza.

The Council for the Preservation of Cultural Sites in Israel erected a sign outside the Assaf Lookout, erected near Bahan in the fallen soldier's memory. The sign announces simply: "The Narrow Waistline of the State of Israel." It explains that the very fact of the narrow waistline was a grave danger for Israel before 1967, in that an enemy force could arrive from the east, quickly cut across to the sea, and slice the country in half. 

There is no better place for such a sign than the Assaf Lookout. For from here can be seen, on the east, the fence (with its many holes, through which Palestinians sneak into Israel) between Israel and the Shomron, while on the west, spread out as if on the palm of the observer's hand, is seen the Coastal Plane of Israel all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. 

Visitors to the site in the evening hours are treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets in all of Israel. But the beauty can be dangerously lulling. For we know that it is precisely from here, and other areas along the former Green Line, that our enemies might very well seek to infiltrate and cut our state into two. 

The narrow waistline of the sign refers to the very narrow area between the sea and the Arab-populated areas of the western Shomron. It appears that this narrowness presents a perpetual enticement for the many terrorist elements in the Shomron. 

The dimensions of the "narrow waistline" were determined by the Armistice Agreement of 1949, based on the areas the IDF had managed to reach during the War of independence of 1948-49. Iraqi forces, arriving from Jordan, had reached an Arab village named Kakon, just aside Gan Yoshiya, only two kilometers west of Bahan as the crow flies. The IDF's Alexandroni Brigade repelled the Iraqis.

Today, as well, we continue to fight off our enemies in these areas – and the dozens of Jewish communities there help bolster our security. These are similar to what in Yesha are called "settlements," but which, as even President Yitzchak Herzog said last week, are very valuable for Israeli security in general. 

Kibbutz Bahan is beautiful, vibrant, and a great place to live. Has the pre-1967 threat to it been removed? 

It does not appear so. Bahan, Bat Hefer, and the other Israeli villages in the area hear signals every evening of the military preparations being made by the terrorist organizations, whether they be shooting practice or even the sound of drilling underground tunnels. 

The nearby Arab city of Tul Karem has become a Hamas stronghold. As these words are being written, the IDF is engaged in anti-terrorist activity in the area, having encircled neighboring Tur a-Shams and eliminating five terrorists, and at least ten more in other areas nearby. But this is not expected to stop the incessant flow of infiltrations from east to west, including not only thieves, but also would-be murderers and suicide terrorists. Our forces have sent katbamim (unmanned drones) to strike down terrorists, and are taking the offensive to destroy terrorist infrastructures. 

But the danger of a Palestinian state in these areas is still quite acute. The international pressure for its establishment – and thus a re-creation of the dangers we faced before 1967 – is very strong, and we must not cave in.

Those abroad, and even here at home, who believe that peace will come only when a Palestinian state is established as a final end to the "occupation," please understand: We have learned our lesson from the Disengagement from Gush Katif (Gaza) in 2005, which led directly to the catastrophe of Oct. 7th. We realize with utmost clarity that abandoning Judea and Samaria to Palestinian rule means Hamas on Jerusalem's doorstep, and terrorists striding not only Bahan and Bat Hefer, but also Kfar Saba and even Afula. 

And to those who thought our war today is "limited" to Gaza, Hizbullah, Yemen, and Iran/Syria, the response is no: The closest front of all is right here in Judea and Samaria, where potentially lethal rock-attacks are also on the sharp rise and have become a daily occurrence.

And so, let it be clear: Israel will never again agree to revert to its "narrow waistline."