OC
Central Command Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon has done it again. You may recall
that Alon was the "senior military official," who as commander of the
Judea and Samaria Division blamed the massacre of the Fogel family in
March 2011 on undefined acts of vandalism in Arab villages allegedly
carried out by Israelis.
He also told The New York Times
that he disagreed with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's view that
Hamas's takeover of Gaza following Israel's withdrawal demonstrated that
a unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria would be reckless in the
extreme.
Over the past four months Alon has
been criticized for his refusal to take actions to end the massive
proliferation of terror attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria. For
months Alon ordered IDF soldiers to stand down as Palestinians hurled
rocks and firebombs at them and at civilians. He set rules of engagement
that are so restrictive that soldiers are better off running away from
Palestinian mobs than defending themselves and Israeli civilians.
After
Adele Biton, a three-year-old girl, was critically wounded when her
mother's car was stoned, and as online videos proliferated of IDF
soldiers fleeing from assaults, and of Israeli civilians being beaten
and assaulted on the roads with firebombs, rocks and bullets, the media
finally began reporting on the terror surge. Public pressure mounted for
Alon to finally take action or be fired from his post.
You might think that given public scrutiny of his failures Alon would keep a low profile. But he hasn't.
On
Tuesday he spoke to a group of foreign journalists and diplomats and
said that in his "professional" opinion, if we don't start negotiations
with the Palestinians soon, we are likely to see an escalation of
Palestinian terrorism against Israelis.
Alon's
claims deserve scrutiny because they expose just how deeply his
political views impede his ability to understand and competently perform
his duties. Alon disclosed that the Popular Committee Against the Wall
and Settlements is the group behind the riots and the attacks on Israeli
civilians and military forces. The group, he revealed, is bankrolled by
the Palestinian Authority.
According to Alon,
out of respect for US Secretary of State John Kerry's attempts to renew
peace talks, the PA suspended the group's funding. He explained that
this PA decision has led to a steep drop in terror attacks.
Alon
said that the PA has kept its funding cutoff - like the funding itself -
secret. He attributed the PA's silence to its leaders' modesty and
moderation.
In his words, "They weren't looking for diplomatic recognition for the move but rather for the territory to quiet down."
Alon also mentioned that PA security forces are involved in stone and firebomb attacks on Israelis.
He
warned that if Kerry's attempts to start peace talks between Israel and
the PLO fail, then Palestinian terror will get worse. In his words,
"If, in a few weeks, the attempt of the American involvement will go
[away] with nothing, I'm afraid that we will see this trend of
escalation even strengthening."
The implications of Alon's revelations are obvious.
The
supposedly grassroots groups of local rioters - including children -
attacking IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians with bullets, firebombs and
stones are not at all independent or grassroots.
They
are wholly owned and operated franchises of the PA. And the ones
leading the attacks are the US-trained Palestinian security services.
Most
people would take these two pieces of information and conclude the PA
is an enemy entity engaged in a massive and sustained terror campaign
against Israeli forces and civilians. But Alon missed this. Alon
revealed the secret PA funding of the rioters to prove its moderation by
also revealing that the funding was temporarily suspended.
Alon's
strategy for dealing with the violence is not to do his job - deploy
forces judiciously to defend the country and its citizens from our
enemies.
His strategy is to pressure the government to surrender to all of the PLO's territorial and political demands.
Because that is Kerry's peace plan.
Since
he entered office in February, Kerry has come here nearly half a dozen
times to force Israel to accept all of the PLO's preconditions for
negotiations.
These include an agreement in
principle that in the framework of a peace deal, Israel will surrender
to the PLO all of Judea, Samaria and northern, southern and eastern
Jerusalem and expel the 550,000 Jews living in these areas from their
homes. They also include a complete and continuous abrogation of Jewish
property rights in Judea, Samaria and eastern, northern and southern
Jerusalem, and the release of Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israeli
prisons.
It ought to go without saying that
there is no connection between military affairs and Alon's positions,
and his ideological blindness to basic strategic realities renders him
unfit for duty.
But it doesn't go without
saying. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon continues to support Alon despite
his ideologically induced incompetence.
Alon
is just one - albeit an important one - of many unelected public
officials whose actions stand opposed to his responsibilities, to the
public interest and to the official policies of the government.
Take
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein. A year ago today, a committee of
distinguished jurists led by retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy
submitted a report to the government on the legal status of construction
in Judea and Samaria. The Levy Report was not a radical document. All
it did was set out the legal basis for the positions that have been
adopted by every Israeli government since 1967. Like every single
government since 1967, the Levy Report stated that Judea and Samaria do
not fit under the international legal definition of territories under
belligerent occupation, and as a consequence, the Fourth Geneva
Convention does not apply, and Israeli communities in these areas are
completely legal and legitimate.
Weinstein is
supposed to serve as the legal adviser to the government. But in the
case of the Levy Report, and not only in this case, he acted instead as a
political commissar. He abused his legal position to intimidate the
government not to adopt the findings of a committee it impaneled, and
whose recommendations were aligned with its own stated positions.
Post-Zionists
like Alon and Weinstein, like their comrades on the Supreme Court and
in the media, are intimidating enough on their own.
But
their subversive behavior is supported by the US and the EU. Kerry's
obsessive focus on forcing Israeli concessions to the PLO, like the EU's
decision to support of an economic boycott of Israeli exports,
strengthens the position of radicals like Alon and Weinstein. They make
it all but impossible for the government to implement its own policies.
In
many respects, Netanyahu has given in to these pressures. Not only has
he overseen the appointment of post-Zionists like Alon and Weinstein.
By
appointing Tzipi Livni to serve as justice minister and the minister
responsible for negotiations with the PLO, he has ensured that nothing
will be done to remedy the phenomenon of radicals being promoted to
positions where they can undermine the policies of the government.
Moreover,
as Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel acknowledged this week,
due to the confluence of foreign pressure and the empowerment of
post-Zionists in the public sector, the government is not respecting
Jewish property rights in Jerusalem. It is banning construction for Jews
in the capital by preventing planning committees from convening to
approve building plans.
Netanyahu is using similar administrative tools to enact an undeclared freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria.
In
taking these actions, Netanyahu is betting - probably correctly - that
he will not be forced to surrender Judea and Samaria, because Mahmoud
Abbas will never agree to negotiate with Israel.
Under
Abbas's leadership, Palestinian society has been so radicalized that
there is no Palestinian constituency that supports peace with Israel.
So, too, the Islamic world has become so radicalized since US President
Barack Obama came into office that there is no regional support
whatsoever for a Palestinian decision to recognize Israel.
While
Netanyahu's policies may allow him to survive Obama's second term
without irrevocably destroying the country, on the ground, the lives of
Israel's citizens are not being defended, and their legal and civil
rights are being trampled.
Ariel, like Bayit
Yehudi party leader Minister Naftali Bennett, doubtlessly wishes to end
this state of affairs. But so far, their efforts in this area have been
limited to calling for the government to change its policies. They and
like-minded government ministers have the power to fix this situation.
And the time has come for them to act.
The
Levy Report provides several recommendations for respecting the legal
rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria. There is no reason for the
government not to implement these recommendations - even without
formally adopting the report.
The report's main
recommendation is to take the government out of the zoning process. The
property and civil rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria must be accorded
the same respect as those of all Israelis, regardless of the political
views of appointed officials or foreign governments.
Local
councils and municipalities in Judea and Samaria, as well as
Jerusalem's municipal government, should have the power to approve
building plans within their municipal boundaries.
To
bring about this, the government must remove the Interior Ministry from
the zoning process in Jerusalem. The government should not have the
power to convene or block the convention of local planning boards.
As for Judea and Samaria, the sale of private land should not require the approval of the civil administration.
And
in accordance with the recommendations of the Levy Report, a land
registry should be established and anyone with legal title to land
should be required within three to five years to register his holdings
or lose his ownership rights.
So, too, in
keeping with the Levy Report, Israeli courts should be empowered to
adjudicate land ownership disputes in Judea and Samaria. The
government's position on land disputes should be determined only after
the disputes are adjudicated in properly constituted courts of law.
Beyond
the Levy Committee's recommendations, to further privatize the field,
as is the case in the rest of the country, state land that is within the
boundaries of recognized communities should become the property of the
communities, not the state.
Since 1967, the
Israelis who support Jewish settlement of Judea and Samaria based their
actions on the assumption that the government is interested in securing
Jewish rights. Certainly after the government forcibly expelled the Jews
of northern Samaria and Gaza from their homes, this assumption is
unjustified. With the empowerment of ideologically driven radicals like
Alon and Weinstein to key positions it is downright ridiculous.
Rather
than expect the government to act as a partner or a defender, we should
simply demand that it serve as a neutral facilitator, and privatize
settlement activities. Only by taking the government out of local
planning and zoning councils, focusing efforts on buying private land
and establishing a land registry for Judea and Samaria, while requiring
land disputes to be adjudicated by properly constituted courts, can
Israelis secure their property and civil rights.
© 2013 Caroline Glick
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