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Home , Israel Katz, Maglan, Naftali Bennett, New Right (Israel), Sayeret Matkal, Secular Right

Selected articles concerning , published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L

Issue 8 9 1 Volume 2 1 , Number 2 3 Parshias Chukas June 1 9 , 2021

Israel Gets Its First Religious Prime Minister By Oren Kessler foreignpolicy.com June 7, 2021 Is religion becoming mainst ream in the Jewish state? Theodor Herzl, ’s visionary, was not only Israel is on the brink of its first government in 12 irreligious, but his vision of the Jewish state was barely years led by someone other than Prime Minister Benjamin informed by Jewish tradition. David Ben - Gurion, the Netanyahu. If finalized over the coming week, the new architect of Israel’s independence and its first prime coalition would be, in multiple ways, a historic one. It minister (and longest serving, until Netanyahu), listed would compr ise a record number of parties, including, for himself in a 1960 ce nsus as an atheist. In a recently the first time, an Arab list. A record eight women would revealed letter from the same year, he describes his serve as ministers. The party sending its to be prime reaction toward soldiers praying at his desert shack on minister earned the smallest electoral haul of any before it. Yom Kippur. “I did not envy them,” he wrote; prayer But one first may be remember ed as more historic than all “may feel pleasant — yet it is not reality, but self - of these: Israel will have, for the first time, a prime deception. ” minister who is religiously observant. All of Ben - Gurion’s successors in the state’s first three announced last weekend that he had decades were secular and socialist. His immediate reached a deal with the party led by — a centrist, successors — Moshe Sharett, , , and secular former news a nchor — in which each would serve — partook in religious rituals only at their as prime minister for two years in turn. If the agreement is own funerals. Even Vladimir Jaboti nsky, the father of consummated — Netanyahu and others are working right - wing Zionism, was largely unschooled in religious furiously to sabotage it — the result will be the most tradition. , Jabotinsky’s ideological unusual government in Israel’s history, uniting Bennett, a heir, works on the Sabbath and rarely enters a synagogue. man of the deep right - wing, with partners from the center Bennett, too, was raised in a non - religious home, to (Lapid), the left (Labor), and even an Arab - Islamist party Myrna and Jim Bennett — liberal Reform from San with ideological roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. Francisco. But in spring 1967, closed the Straits of Bennett is a territorial maximalist who believes in Tiran in a bid to choke off Israel, and a coalition of Arab annexing 60 percent of the , with an autonomy states appeared massing for an of fensive that would end arrangement for the Palestinians there. He believes a two - the country’s lifespan at 19. According to Bennett, his state solution, still cherished by the Biden administration parents were stunned that their Jewish - American friends and dwindling elements of the Israeli left, would bring seemed unperturbed, continuing their everyday routines as “disaster” on the Jewish state: “I want the world to the Jewish state’s existence hung in the balance. When understand that a Palestinian state means no Israeli state. Israel p revailed in six days — taking the West Bank, Golan That’s the equation.” Heights, and to boot — they boarded the And yet he’s not quite the wild - eyed settler extremist first civilian flight there. In Upper , they of caricature, either: He boasts native - level English, a volunteered at that most secular and progressive of all formidable military record, a bank account plumped by an Israeli institutions: the . exit from a successfu l tech startup, and a happy home with The Bennet ts subsequently settled in , where Jim four children in a bourgeois neighborhood near . worked at the Technion, Israel’s venerable technological More than anything, the potential advent of a Prime university and where Naftali, the youngest of three sons, Minister Bennett represents the mainstreaming of religion was born in 1972. The difficulties of integration, however, in the State of Israel’s 73rd year. He aims to unit e right and proved too much and they returned to California the next left, devout and secular, the hills of Samaria with the summer. country’s high - tech center. He has long believed religious In October of that year, however, another war broke and right - wing Israelis are the silenced majority, their out, with far different fortunes for Israelis. The Yom voices obstructed by left - wing elites in media, the courts, Kippur War caught them utterly unawares; the country and academia . But he favors honey to vinegar; he wants to suffered heavy losses and its existence again appeared in bring Tekoa to Tel Aviv. If in the process the country’s doubt. Jim flew to join his reserve unit in the Golan, and face becomes a little more religious, a little more right - stayed with it for several months. Myrna and the boys wing, so much the better. followed him back to Israel, and the move was now “What is happening is a revolution,” he told permanent. nearly a decade ago, and “for me in particular, it’s The family’s religious awakening began slowly, not in important to be a bridge to you. One of the biggest Israel but Montreal and later New York , where Naftali’s challenges from my perspective is to connect you to father was sent on behalf of the Technion and then the , too.” Jewish Agency. “We enrolled the children in Jewish The central figures of Israel’s founding were secular. schools,” the elder Bennett, who died in 2015, told Foc us o n Is rael June 19, 2021 Page 2

Haaretz in a long interview two years before. “We needed abili ties he admired and whose late brother — the hero of a kosher kitchen, becau se other children visited us at the celebrated 1976 raid — he idolized. It was in home. We started with simple things, like lighting candles Netanyahu’s office that he also met , a on Sabbath eve. One thing led to another, until we also secular, right - wing former software engineer from Tel started to attend synagogue and so on.” Aviv with whom he would form a long - term p olitical When Bennett was a teenager, he switched from coed partnership. After two years, Bennett and Netanyahu public school to y eshiva. He then joined the army, enlisting parted amid rumors of bad blood with the premier’s wife, in , the same elite commando in which Sara. Netanyahu had served. Bennett later earned an officer’s In 2010 became head of the , the commission, and commanded a company in , a umbrella organization of Israeli municipal councils in the mysterious, high - tech unit operating deep behind enemy West Bank. He butted heads with the settlement l ines whose very existence was kept secret for decades. In enterprise’s old guard: They were too confrontational, too 1996, during an operation in the village of Qana, south divisive. He wanted not to defeat the country’s liberal - left , he called in airstrikes on a U.N. compound that elite, but to win their hearts and minds, to persuade them killed more than 100 civilians. The controversy over that that the Land and Torah of Israel were their inheritance as day has followed him ever s ince. much as his. Friends from his youth recall him as religious, but not In 2012 Bennett left the and won the leadership fanatic. “He always had female friends and today he is of Jewish Home, a small national - religious party. The party absolutely not extreme, but normal in his religious prospered with him at the helm, jumping to fourth in observance,” said one. elections the following year. With newfound leverage, he For several years during his army service he went entered governme nt boasting multiple portfolios bareheaded. In 1995, Prime Minister Rabin was simultaneously. As economy minister he encouraged assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo greater integration of Israel’s most marginal citizens: ultra - Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Orthodox and Arabs. As minister of religious and diaspora Bennett returned to wearing the skullcap: “The backlash of affairs he held friendly meetings with non - Orthodox the Rabin assassination was a backlash against all the de legations from America and made space for mixed - religious — blame them! — which I thought was very gender and female prayer at the Western Wall. unfair.” “He is not ultra - Orthodox, his yarmulke is small and Bennett’s relatively lax religiosity is reflected in his he is considered ‘religious light,’ perhaps the lightest personal life, too. In the army he met, then married Gilat, possible,” wrote one analyst. “He is not very religi ous an accomplished pastry chef from a secular home. In 2000, necessarily,” added a former high - tech colleague (who after a few months in a West Bank settlement they made a hastened to add: “But he is very right - wing.”) dramatic relocation to ’s . In late 2018 Bennett and Shaked left There, he tried his luck in the tech economy while Gilat and established a new party, the , with the won plaudits for her crème brûlée at some of the city’s explicit aim of drawing together secular and religious plushest spots. Jewish - Israelis. The gamble failed: In the April 2019 Bennett’s own success was not long in comi ng. Within elections the party failed to pass the minimum threshold a few years the startup he cofounded — the anti - fraud for entering the . His political stock was as its software Cyota — was acquired by the Israeli - American nadir; he handed the reins to Shaked, under whom New cybersecurity firm RSA for $145 million, a few million of Right joined two other ri ght - wing parties under the which went to Bennett himself. umbrella (“Rightward”). His transition from that tech windfall to the world of The new coalition performed well, and Bennett high politics was mediated by the Second Lebanon War of ultimately retook its leadership. In late 2019, Netanyahu 2006. “I was suddenly commanding soldiers in some appointed him defense minister, fearing he would join village in Lebanon and fighting . It’s like the Lapid and others in a bid to oust him fr om office. Bennett weirdest thing. And what I saw in that war is friends of filled the post barely six months, during a relatively mine injured or dying because of incompetent or immoral uneventful period (by local standards) that offered little leadership,” he said earlier this year. “It drove me almost opportunity to distinguish himself. But with the onset of crazy — how much good people are suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic, he enlisted the military’s full bad leaders. That’s what drove me into politics.” intelli gence capabilities, and continued the fight against the Bennett — now with an established reputation as a tech virus even after leaving government. As Netanyahu’s entrepreneur and elite - unit commander with right - wing public - health effort foundered, Bennett built his own convictions — caught the attention of Netanyahu, then shadow - corona cabinet with a crew of medical, economic leader of the opposition to the now - defunct, centrist and business experts, and even managed to publish a book party. He signed on as chief of staff, on battling the epidemic. Bennett was likely the single distinguishing himself by loyalty to the Likud leader, whose Page 3 June 19, 2021 Focus on Israel

Israeli politician to have gained political capital from the added. “My whole life I’ve had one foot here and one foot scope and timing of the corona crisis. there.” Meanwhile, the growing breach between Bennett and Bennett, after all, now lives not in a West Bank his former mentor became public, as he blamed settlement like some right - wing leaders (Avigdor Netanyahu for rising prices, the bungled virus response, Lieberman, another party leader in the new coalition, lives sharpening internal divides, and delaying promises to deep in the Judean desert). Inst ead he resides in Raanana, annex large parts of the West Bank. Just last week, Bennett an affluent city just outside Tel Aviv with a large English - slammed the premier for mishandling the spiraling security speaking contingent. His wife, who does not wear any situation in Gaza, in Jerusalem, and between Jews and identifiably religious attire, now works as a parenting Arabs around the country. “I do not remember such a counselor, her cannily managed Facebook page typified by period of weakness, dysfunction, and national pos ts like, “Let’s talk potty training.” embarrassment,” he wrote, slamming Netanyahu’s “cult of The second inevitable question relates to the Bennett - personality.” Biden relationship. For over a decade, Netanyahu has paid Bennett’s apparent arrival as prime minister r aises an lip service (if not always consistent) to the two - state inevitable question. Is he, given the odd circumstances of solution that has been U.S. Middle East policy sin ce the his rise, a mere fluke in this country’s story, or does he George W. Bush administration. Bennett, by contrast, represent an irreversible tide toward the right, toward rejected former President ’s Israel - religion, and toward a one - state Greater Israel? embracing “deal of the century” because it envisioned a Perhaps not quite either . The advent of this country’s Palestinian state, albeit a small, chopped up, and first hard - right, religious premier does not necessarily demilitarized one. mean it is turning into the Jewish Republic of Israel, the President Joe Biden ha s thus far continued mirror image of its Iranian nemesis, or into an illiberal Washington’s decades - long tradition of bipartisan backing pseudo - democracy on the model of Prime Minister Vik tor for its Israeli ally. Yet that support is fraying among Orban’s Hungary. It still has a free press, sprawling Pride Democrats; last month’s 11 - day war with made parades, and an electoral system so democratic as to inhibit plain that the country’s image in the party has changed the actual functioning of democracy. Israel remains a quickly and dr amatically. The Democrats are shifting massively complex country whose fault lines don’t always toward the left, and younger Americans as a whole are hug the curves most familiar to Western observers: left vs. becoming less devout. Bennett understands that the rising right; faith vs. science; Jew vs. Arab; peace vs. war. generation in the Democratic Party — and among But it does represent a broader acceptance in Israel of , who overwhelmingly vote for it — is religion’s growing presence in the public square. Lapid’s rapidly div erging from its counterparts in Israel. late father headed a party whose core platform was “I’m cognizant of the fact that especially younger protecting secularism and combating religious coercion; as American Jews tend to be way more liberal and left recently as the early 2000s it was the third - largest faction in compared to the younger generation in Israel, which tends parliament. to be much more conservative and right,” he said recentl y. Much water has flown since then, to borrow a Hebrew “I get that. I call that, arguments within the family. How expression. There were the grim years of the Second do you solve it? Well, you don’t really solve it. You live Intifada, the 2005 pullout from Gaza and the surge in with it, and you embrace it.” rockets that followed, and the crashing failure of the Oslo Bennett will likely be the weakest prime minister in Accords’ two - state vision. There is no straight or direct Israeli history. The coalition deal includes a parit y line leading from these developments to a Bennett provision between his right - wing bloc and Lapid’s more - premiership, but there is the feeling, deep and wide across centrist one, with each able to veto new bills at will. With the country, that the future promised by Israel’s historically such an eclectic alliance, these provisions virtually ensure secular, center - left leadership has proved a mirage. the absence of dramatic legislation, particularly on the “I don’t support religious coercion, but I do believe issue most important to the outside world: Israel’s that Judaism is our ‘why;: Judaism is the reason for our apparent forever war with the Palestinians. Bennett may existence and th e justification for our existence, and the have big plans — West Bank annexation chief among meaning of our existence,” he once told the liberal them — but the circumstances of this strangest of journalist Ari Shavit. “I know that for your ‘tribe,’ this is governments mean most will have to wait. difficult. It is difficult because your tribe established the “Nobody will have to give up th eir ideology, but all state in a secular - socialist spirit. And as you see the society will have to postpone the realization of some of their changing and the state changing, you feel like you are done dreams,” he said in announcing the agreement. for. The Hebrew - language commentariat has cast its usual “Your feeling is that the home that had been your cynicism on the arrangement, with one analyst venturing home is no longer yours. I am not indifferent to your that the new government would last six months at best. distress. I am also personally connected to your ethos,” he But the presumptive prime minister is nothing if not Foc us o n Is rael June 19, 2021 Page 4

capable, and he will be loath to bow out of a position he Bennett will have already made history. has awaited his whole life. For now, barring any eleventh - Mr. Kessle ’ s first book, “Fire Before Dawn: The First Palestinian hour surprises, in becoming Israel’s prime minister Naftali Revolt and the Struggle for the Holy Land,” is forthcoming .

Recovery from Netanyahu withdrawal wo n’t be easy By Jonathan S. Tobin jns.org June 14, 2021 Both those who loved and those who hated the former His diplomatic skills also helped break Israel’s prime minister have been treating his political fate as isolation and expand its network of allies and friends. Part an existential dilemma. They need to get over that. of that was made possible by his tough - minded opposition If the tone of discourse in the Knesset during the to the efforts of former President Barack Obama to effect session in which Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his a rapprochement with Iran that endangered Sunni Arab “government of change” were legally confirmed seemed states as well as Israel. While it was the Trump intemperate and unnecessarily hysterical, it’s hardly administration that deserves credit for the Abraham surprising. Accords, Netanyahu’s years of under - the - table efforts set The culture of Israel’s parlia ment is itself something of the stage for it. a disgrace. Indeed, when Israeli school teachers seek to While that — and his impressive management of reprimand an unruly class, they generally ask, “Where do Israel’s efforts to cope with the coronavirus pandemic — you think you are? The Knesset?” has led his followers to believe that Netanyahu is the only Yet the hysterical and nasty tone of the Sunday session person capable of le ading the country through future wasn’t just reflective of the unfortunate custom of a crises, he’s also the victim of his own success. legislative body where bad behavior is often the rule rather His supporters fail to understand is that the bizarre than the exception. The whole debate about the possibility left - right - center coalition led by new Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu being tossed out of office after Naftali Bennet and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is more than 12 years seemed to bring out the worst in slated to t ake over the top job in two years, was made everyone in Israel and American Jewry. possible not only by the personal animus all of its elements As disorienting as it may be to live in a world where bear for the Likud leader. It’s also a product of the Netanyahu is not either Israel’s all - knowing leader or its consensus about security issues that Netanyahu helped unaccountable “crime minister,” as the crowd that forge that has essentially remade Israeli p olitics. gathered to demonstrate outside his official residence on If Israel were still as evenly divided about the Saturday nights has been calling him for the past two years, Palestinian question as it was in 2009, the idea of left - and it is now the reality. And though it may be hard to right - wing parties working together would have been remember what life was like before the spring of 2009 impossible. Though Labor and on the left hold when he began his second stint in office, we’re all about to views that are incompatible fro m of those of Bennett and realize that the impact of his demotion to the leader of the other right - wingers in the anti - Netanyahu coalition, as well opposition may not be as great as either side has been as those of centrists like Lapid and Defense Minister asserting for so long. , all of them know that thanks to the lack of a To say this is not to discount his accomplishments or Palestinian peace partner, none of them are likely to be put the historic nature of his tenure. Netanyahu is not just the to the test. longest - serving Israeli pr ime minister or among its most The same goes for the threat about Iran on which the controversial. As much as the extravagant claims of his majority of the new coalition is largely united and holds admirers that he is utterly indispensable are hard to take views that are little different from that of the Likud. seriously, there is no doubt that fair - minded historians Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel needs him more (assuming there are such things) must note that on hi s than it needed a righ t - wing government, even if it was led watch, Israel prospered in manifold ways. by someone else, is also more evidence that the old His sure - handed approach to economics helped guide political divide is no longer paramount. the country to prosperity, even if most middle - class people And that makes the talk about betrayal, and Iran or still struggle to get by on salaries that are inadequate to Hamas celebrating Netanyahu’s demise, ridiculous. their needs. Israel is richer and its eco nomy stronger for Bennett and Gantz may n ot agree on a lot, and the other his efforts. parties in the coalition, including the anti - Zionist Ra’am He was equally successful in dealing with the country’s Party, may also be at odds on the big issues. But Israel’s daunting security dilemmas. While the ongoing conflict current position, though hardly invulnerable, is sufficiently with the Palestinians remains, his genius lay in secure to allow a government that can only function as understanding that this problem is, at least for the long as it doesn’t have to answer existential questions to foreseeable future, insoluble and required proper carry on at least for the short term, and perhaps for far management rather than bright, idealistic and unworkable longer than Netanyahu and his loyalists think. ideas that only made Israel less safe. Page 5 June 19, 2021 Focus on Israel

That demonstrates why the appetite for change was so through and allow Israelis to understand that, for better or great. worse, the notion that without one man the country will Of course, so great is his reputation as a political fall apart is a myth. wizard that commentators must qualify their evaluations of That’s the nature of politics. Netanyahu thinks he has the current situation by acknowledging the possibility that been treated unfairly and, in so me respects (especially with he will make good on his promise to take down Bennett regard to his trial on largely insubstantial corruption and return to power. But it is that possibility th at will charges), that’s true. But nothing — not even the tenure of ensure that the new coalition is likely to hang together for the most talented leader — can go on forever, and it may be a while. Having betrayed so many of his former allies and easier to get used to life without him in power than th ose followers, including Bennett and other leaders of some of whose political imaginations revolve around him realize. the new coalition parties, none will believe a word he says That’s why the hysterical punditry about Netanyahu or be vulne rable to being persuaded to abandon their and his successors in the last several weeks is not likely to unlikely bedfellows. stand up very well if we look back on them in six months The longer life goes on without Netanyahu at the or a year. As much as he will want the argument to helm — and in the absence of proof that Israel will be any continue to be about him, ultimately, the future of a less worse off for its citizens — the smaller the shadow he country is never about one person. While he may not be will cast over his successors . His churlish exit from office ready to go quietly or graciously into the night and await with over - the - top language about his parliamentary defeat the judgment of history, everyone else should be prepared being only the result of “fraud” will only redouble the to m ove on and deal with a reality in which he is no longer determination of those who cast him out of office to keep all that important. Whether you supported him or him on the opposition benches for as long as possibl e. deplored his influence, the sooner we all are prepared to What he will also have to reckon with is that now that talk about something other than Benjamin Netanyahu, the Bennett and Lapid are in power, their political fate will be better off Israel and the work of tho se who are dedicated in their own hands and not a function of what he says to its support it will be. about them. They may falter and prove to be inadequate to Mr . Tobin is editor in chief of JNS — Jewish News Syndicate. the task. Yet it’s also p ossible that they will muddle

The Status Quo in Gaza Is the Least - Bad Option By Yaakov Amidror mosaicmagazine.com June 14, 2021 There are plenty of nice plans for Gaza, bu t none that families) have been living since before the 1967 war. The will change the core truth: Hamas will continue to Jews claim that the properties in question were bought by seek Israel’s destruction, and Israel will continue to Jews before the 1948 War of Independence. On Thursday defend itself. May 13, Israel’s Supreme Court was expected to announce To understand the future of the , it’s its decision about the eviction case against a number of necessary to consider the origins of the most recent round families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. This is a of fighting. Ham as’s missile barrage on Jerusalem began mundane property dispute and ought to be resolved, as during a week fraught with tension. Two events and three appro priate in a country subject to the rule of law, by the significant dates — each of which with potential to raise the courts. temperature — coincided in a very short period of time, 3. No one in the legal system seemed to notice that creating a perfect storm. May 13 was also the end of the month of Ramadan and 1. On April 30, the Palestinian Authority (PA) the beginning of Eid al - Fitr, a major Muslim holiday. The president Mahmoud Abbas canceled the parliamentary and final week of Ramadan is always a sensitive time presidential elections that had been scheduled for May and throughout the Muslim world, and violent outbursts are July, respectively. Hamas, which had expected to do well in not uncommon. In Israel, tension is often highest in places these elections — and even hoped it could replace Abbas in that are already fraught, especially the Temple Mount. The the presidency and gain a parliamentary majority — was left high attendance at public prayers during this week frustrated and embittered. Abbas and his supporters called routinely res ults in violence in the West Bank, and off the elections precisely because they agreed that Hamas especially in Jerusalem. was likely to achieve electoral success. While Hamas’s 4. Monday, May 10 was Jerusalem Day, which frustration was in no way related to the events in commemorates Jerusalem’s liberation by the IDF. (The Jerusalem, it became a catalyst and perhaps even a decisive convergence of this day with the final week of Ramadan factor in determining the terrorist group’s subsequent only occurs once in a dozen years). On th is day, thousands behavior in Gaza. participate in a colorful procession with flags and songs 2. For some time now, property disputes in that passes through both the eastern and western parts of Jerusalem have contributed to a volatile atmosphere in the the city, thereby reminding the Palestinian residents and city. These disputes involve lawsuits by Jews to evict Visit suburba northodox.or g for t he current issue . Palestinian families from homes where they (or their Foc us o n Is rae l June 19, 2021 Page 6

the Arab world in general of their failure in 1967 and of firing a few Katyusha rockets from Lebanon, and the Israel ’s continued possession of a united Jerusalem. piloting of an (apparently Iranian) drone through 5. To add more fuel to the fire, Saturday May 15 did not achieve their desired outcomes. The West Bank marked “Nakba Day” (the “Day of Calamity”), on which remained relatively calm and no serious confrontation Palestinians mourn the results of the 1948 war. While ensued at Israel’s borders. Ramadan is determined by the Muslim lunar calendar, a nd Nonetheless, the events in Jerusalem and Gaza Jerusalem by the Jewish one, this date follows the managed to incite Israeli Arabs to lash out violently against anniversary of Israel’s creation on the Gregorian calendar. their Jewish neighbors. Even though the degree of This week, therefore, would have been tense even without Hamas’s involvement remai ns unclear, there is no doubt the Sheikh Jarrah verdict and the Palestinian elections. that the rocket fire from Gaza and Israel’s response The Israeli police’s questionable decisions, especially contributed to the unrest. Now that a ceasefire has been its moves to limit access to the area near the Damascus reached and the riots and protests in Israel have abated, Gate and — based on intelligence reports about planned the relationship between the state and its Arab citizens demonstrations — to prevent Israeli Arabs from entering m ust be examined anew. It is likely that Israel’s Jews will the Temple Mount for prayers, apparen tly contributed to not rush to return to their previous relationship with the the tension among the locals and may also have been used Arab minority, which had appeared to be moving by others as an excuse to fan the flames. decisively in the direction of economic integration. For Only a few months before these events, Hamas had example, the health system has man y Arab professionals emerged from a complex internal election in which Yahya (25 percent of the doctors and 30 percent of the nurses), Sinwar, who is regarded as a rel ative moderate willing to an Arab runs the country’s oldest and second - largest bank, reach agreements with Israel in exchange for Gaza’s and many large shopping centers are staffed by Arab development and prosperity, won by one vote. Hamas saleswomen in traditional dress. In the political arena as now looked despairingly at Abbas’s cancelation of the well, t here is expanded acceptance of Arab involvement. elections, through which it had hoped to take control of These riots began just as the Israeli political system the PA and thus of the West Bank. Under these showed unprecedented willingness to bring an Arab party circumstances Hamas’s leaders decided to prove to into the government, even if this was the result of Palestinian society, and perhaps to the entire Arab world, eagerness to escape political deadlock. that they are the ones who set the Palestinian agenda. They Arab society was hit hard during the coronavirus crisis, delivered an ultimatum to the Israeli government, stating in part due to relatively limited governmental economic that they would respond with rocket fire if Israel would aid, in turn a result of Israeli Arabs’ relatively high not change its behavior in Jerusalem. proportion of unreported income. At the end of the day, Hamas, in short, tried to leverage its position in Gaza Israel is apparently also paying th e price of its failure to rid to present itself as “the defender of Jerusalem.” Arab society of its high rates of crime and violence. The As expected, the ultimatum was rejected. majority of this violence is perpetrated by, and plays into True to its w ord, Hamas broke the understandings the hands of, organized - crime families who have taken with Israel that had been reached in the wake of previous control of Arab neighborhoods; another part of the rounds of fighting and fired rockets at Jerusalem. This vio lence is cultural in the sense that some issues, such as resulted in Israel launching operation Guardian of the clan disputes or violations of sexual taboos, are still Walls. resolved violently — meaning revenge killings as a means of Israel faced three areas of conflict: restoring family honor. In this respect, Israeli Arabs are 1. Jer usalem. Here local unrest was harsher and on a not different from other A rab societies in the Middle East, larger scale than in the past. which are all violent in one way or another. 2. Gaza. Hamas fired around 4,400 rockets and This does not excuse the failure of Israel’s police to missiles, along with mortar fire, and Israel responded by eliminate the crime families’ influence on the Arab street; destroying the organization’s infrastructure, targeting its the police must confiscate the vast number of weapons commanders, an d collaterally damaging civilian structures that hav e accumulated in the homes of Arab citizens as that served the organization or were adjacent to its part of a culture in which possession of arms is viewed as facilities. honorable. Unfortunately, the failure to overcome the 3. Within Israel. Israeli Arabs tore apart the fabric of crime families and gangs stems in part from Arab society’s coexistence that had obtained across the country in riots in lack of cooperation with the police a nd its political leaders’ which Jews were murdered, syn agogues burned, Jewish insistence upon defending violence directed at Jews or the homes vandalized, and a great deal of Jewish property state’s institutions. Arab citizens are correct that the police destroyed. In response, there were a few (yet very are not doing enough, but the police’s claim that Arab dangerous to Israeli society) incidents of fringe groups of leaders, in their unwillingness to be part of the so lution, Jews who viciously attacked Israeli Arabs. are worsening the problem is even more justified. The attempts to incite ma ss protest marches in the It appears that the best way forward involves both the West Bank or to instigate a confrontation in the north by Page 7 June 19, 2021 Focus on Israel

investment of resources toward improve the living West, and sho ws, through twisted logic, that only Hamas conditions of Israeli Arabs and the significant bolstering of can defend Palestinians from the Jews’ assaults. the police force in order to re in in crime. Without a doubt, By contrast, Israel focused on more concrete and this undertaking will increase the friction between the Arab tangible operational objectives which it hoped would population and the state. However, the dangers of such translate into strategic gains. The mission was to weaken friction must not deter the police from confiscating Hama s’s military capabilities, while making it hard to weapons, or from eradicating the criminal organizations rebuild these capabilities afterward — with the aim of t hreatening Arab citizens — and, as it has turned out, incurring enough damage to deter the organization from Jewish citizens as well. That being said, it is important not acting against Israel in the future. In practice, this meant to make the common mistake that improving the Arabs’ destroying infrastructure and armame nts and eliminating quality of life and safety will cause them to look favorably Hamas commanders and operatives. upon the existence of a nati on - state of the Jewish people. Since the two sides were fighting different wars, it is It is best to be modest in our expectations. Achieving unsurprising that both sides claimed victory. these goals may render it easier for them to live in such a As a result of the operation, Palestinians and the Arab state without internal violence and in coexistence with world see Hamas as a group that sacrificed a great deal to their Jewish surroundings, but in light of the recent events, defend Jerusalem. Israel is seen as a failure because it had it is difficult to envision a significant change in the near no public - relations achievements. After all, Hamas leaders future regarding the Arabs’ acceptance of the Israel’s walk freely in Gaza’s streets and large numbers of rockets existence as an undisputed fact. were still being fired at Israel until the very last moment, The challenge of forming good relations between Jews ma king clear that not all of them had been destroyed. and Arabs in Israel is difficult and complex, and apparently Still, Israel is justifiably satisfied with the operation. will be with us for a long time to come. The riots were the Over 90 percent of the rockets were downed by the Iron biggest surprise of operation Guardian of the Walls, in Dome anti - missile system, minimizing the damage. The which Hamas failed in all its attempts to surprise Israel. IDF also succeeded in foiling all of Hamas’s other attacks, Rising nationalistic emotions, religious sensitivities over from the attempted sabotage of its oil rigs with miniature Jerusa lem, and Israel’s inability to deal with lawless submarines to the use of tunnels to send fighters into elements in Arab society have combined to precipitate Israel. Moreover, Israel severely damaged Hamas’s violence between Jews and Arabs, and will likely do so infrastructure and its ability to produce rockets and again in the future. While one might wish it otherwise, missiles and ki lled many of its operatives, including mid - many of Israel’s Arab citizens are deeply discomfited by level commanders. It is clear to the Gazans that Hamas the very existence of a sovereign Jewish state. It is a state may claim to be the defender of Jerusalem, but lacks the that provides them with a higher quality of life than any ability to protect Gaza. Arab country, yet it is not theirs and it is difficult for them In light of this strange situation where both parties to identify with it. consider themselves vi ctors and ostensibly are satisfied While the challenge presented by the actions of Israel’s with the operation’s results, Israel must act to restore its Arabs is clear, even if the solution to it is complicated, the aura of invincibility, on which its stature in the region results of the operation in Gaza are more complicated still depends. Israel lost some of that stature as a result of the and it is difficult to predict where they will lead. It is hard operation’s visible results. But in the M iddle East, it is to determine who won the last round of fighting, in part prudent to distinguish between those results that are because the two parties can be said to have conducted immediately evident and unseen results that may come into separate operations, each striving for different goals. view in the future. In this case, for example, the Hamas Unlike a conventional military operation, where, for leadership may conclude that it can no longer risk the instance, one side wants to dislodge the other from a extensive dama ge to its abilities that would come with a particular hilltop, and the ot her wants to maintain its similar conflict with Israel. After the Second Lebanon War position, Hamas and the IDF fought not so much against of 2006, Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly each other but in parallel. declared a “divine victory,” but ultimately let it be known Hamas fought on the strategic and diplomatic level. Its that, had he been aware of the results i n advance, he would goal was to take advantage of the tension in Jerusalem to not have initiated it. In this respect, Israel has the prove itself the city’s defender through indiscriminate fire advantage over Hamas, since Hamas cannot undo the against Israel. This battle took place in the realm of public tangible results that the IDF achieved on the ground. By relations, unrelated to achievements on the ground. Thus contrast, Israel can (and in my opinion, must) change the the operational goal was to cause the deaths of innocent attitudes and fe elings of Palestinians and the Arab world. Israeli and Palestinian civilians. It is important t o realize Israel should not wait for the Hamas leadership to that Hamas benefits from the death of Palestinian civilians realize it made a mistake and admit as much in public, no less, and perhaps even more so, than from the death of which may never happen. Instead, Jerusalem should make Israeli civilians. After all, each Palestinian death increases its victory clear on both the diplomatic and the mil itary sympathy for Gaza both in the Arab world and in the levels. The following two steps would be a good start: Foc us o n Is rae l June 19, 2021 Page 8

1. Israel must demonstrate that Hamas failed to apparently held by Hamas. These demands will complicate change the status quo in Jerusalem at all. To do so, Israel th e negotiations and cause them to drag on, but Israel must reinstate its previous policies on the Temple Mount, must stand firm so that the humanitarian achievements including the admittance of J ews (which has already important to Hamas, in the form of opening up of Gaza to resumed), maintaining a police presence, and even using allow rebuilding, will be balanced by a humanitarian force on the Temple Mount against any Palestinian achievement that is important in Israel . If Hamas demands aggression. At the same time, it must prepare for difficult in return the release of over 1,000 terrorists imprisoned in scenarios that may arise as a result of court verdicts to Israel, Israel must calculate the advantages and evict Pal estinians in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan disadvantages, and possibly refrain from a long - term neighborhoods. To this end, Israel must significantly settlement. strengthen its police force — which must, in turn, avoid It is important to remember:any such arrangement will antagonizing local residents while remaining ready to not solv e the basic problems in Gaza. It will remain respond forcefully to any disturbance of the peace. overpopulated (over two million people in less than 200 Experience teaches us that the presence of large forces square miles), and its inhabitants will still be dominated by before trouble begins significantly reduces the risk of a a terror organization seeking to rebuild its power to harm situation deteriorating to the point where live fire becomes Israel rather than focusing on pro viding a better life for its necessary, thus also preventing further escalation. Israel subjects. The only advantage to a long - term truce will be can nullify Hamas’s o stensible strategic success through a delaying the next operation, which will take place as soon series of relatively simple actions in Jerusalem, with the as Hamas either feels it is strong enough to fight Israel or understanding that these could potentially lead to a local needs to prove its significance. Quiet on the Gaz a front crisis, but that such a crisis is still better than rewarding will allow Israel to focus on preparations for the real Hamas. If it does not become clear ver y soon that Hamas challenge: the combination of the Iranian nuclear threat has achieved nothing in Jerusalem, the terrorist group’s along with the ongoing increase of accurate long - range appetite for fighting (next time, no doubt, presenting itself weaponry possessed by Iran and Hizballah. Gaza will as a “defender” of some other Palestinian interest) will remain an open wound that wi ll one day bleed even more only grow. profusely than during this recent round of fighting. 2. Israel must take pains to create and maintain If, either after the ceasefire or a negotiated de terrence in Gaza by responding forcefully to any arrangement, Israel has an opportunity to eliminate senior instance of Hamas aggression, even those that it has Hamas or Islamic Jihad officials or munitions - previously ignored or responded to tepidly. Hamas must manufacturing facilities in Gaza, then the decision - makers not be allowed to harass the Israeli citizens of the area will face a difficult choice of whether to be the first to adjacent to Gaza with incendiary balloons and protests break the ceasefire. Doing so would most likely bring that cross the border. If Hamas does carry out such about another long round of violence with the attendant actions, they must be met with significant strikes on its attacks on Israel in the international arena. Howeve r, leaders and infrastructure. Israel must abandon its refraining from taking action will enable Hamas’s principle of “proportional response,” which usually rearmament and place Israel in a difficult position the next involves returning fire whil e avoiding hitting targets, or time fighting breaks out. This question of a preventative other similar half - measures. This approach plays into attack was and will be the most difficult decision for Israeli Hamas’s hands by signaling that low - grade attacks are leadership, because o f the negative repercussions both of worth the risk of retaliation. Instead the IDF must strike restraint and of taking initiative. back hard, knowing that Hamas is likely to respond with None of these dilemmas is likely to go away anytime ro cket fire for an extended period. Only then can Israel soon, and I would not be surprised if Jerusalem were make clear that it is willing to pay this price to achieve real weighing the same questions ten years from now. There deterrence, which will be manifest in complete quiet are those who argue that the current situation is untenable, around Gaza. So long as Israel appears unwilling to risk and have proposed dramatic attempts to change the status confrontation, Hamas, rathe r than be deterred, will quo: either through taking harsher military action to understand that it has deterred the IDF. achieve “victory,” trying to restore the Palestinian In the negotiations towards an arrangement with Gaza Authority’s control of Gaza, or granting Hamas significant that are taking place with Egypt’s help, Israel must make economic concessions. Such proposals are unlikely to clear that it will not allow Hamas’s rearmament. succeed in the f oreseeable future. Hamas, most likely, will Otherwise, Israel will encount er a much stronger enemy in continue to be a terrorist organization that seeks Israel’s the next operation a few years from now. In a long - term total destruction, and Israel will have to continue to use settlement, Israel must also demand the return of the force to contain and deter it. remains of IDF soldiers as well as the two living civilians Mr. Amidror is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security .

Page 9 June 19, 2021 Focus on Israel

Arab - Jewish Harmony Is Alive and Well in Haifa By Menachem Kellner algemeiner.com June 7, 2021 What doesn’t consider fit to failed to throw the Jews in to the sea. Her husband, who print. chose to stay in Israel, made a successful life for himself I n a May 25 guest essay, “The Myth of Coexistence in and his family here and raised a son (our friend) who Israel,” Diana Buttu writes of Haifa, my hometown. Self - earned several academic degrees and is highly regarded identified as a Palestinian citizen of Israel, she is resolutely professional. Her husband’s brother, on the other hand, focused on the glass half - empty. Her op - ed was illustrated the one who had elected to flee to Lebanon, spent the rest with maps presenting a f alse, agenda - driven picture of the of his life in a Palestinian refugee camp, denied by his geography of the holy land fought over by Israelis and Lebanese Arab brethren the rights of legal residence, not Arabs for over a century. I want to paint a different picture to men tion citizenship. That brother chose to abandon his of the city in which I have lived for the last forty years. home — he was not “ethnically cleansed” as Buttu would My wife and I, both retirees from Haifa acad emic have it. institutions, love to sit in coffee shops. Our favorite one There are two universities and several colleges in near our home is jointly owned and managed by a Jewish Haifa. Each institution is blessed with senior Arab citizen of Israel and an Arab citizen of Israel. (I have never professors, administrators, and many Arab students, whose asked, it being none of my business, but I have reason to percentage of the student bodies is greater than the doubt that he i dentifies as a Palestinian citizen of Israel). percentage of Arabs in the general population. Generally, Misleadingly, Buttu has decided for Arab citizens of Haifa the relationship of Jewish and Arab students in Israeli that they have no choice but to identify as Palestinians, not universities is civil and even harmonious. I write as as Arab Israelis. I wonder how many of them has she someone with f irst - hand knowledge of the University of asked? How many of them, including B uttu herself, have Haifa, where I taught for many years and served as Dean moved from Haifa to areas under Palestinian control? of Students. My wife and I also enjoy walking on Haifa’s beautiful It is true that Haifa suffered from one night of clashes beachfront. I cannot identify whether the large majority of between hooligans, both Jews and Arabs, at the beginning the people enjoying the sunny stroll with us are Arab, at of the most recent round of figh ting. Everyone in the city least not u ntil they speak. The other morning we noticed a was shocked, embarrassed by the outliers in each side, and pair of armed security guards at the beach, speaking Arabic quickly came together to put a stop to it. It may also be to each other. Despite recent events, we discern no tension true that Haifa’s largely successful coexistence between in the air, or on people’s faces. Jews and Arabs is partly a function of the fact that ma ny When we swim in our local pool, we swim together Muslim Haifaites are members of the Ahmadi movement with Arabs and Jews. When we need medical attention, it and that many other Haifa Arabs are Christians. This is often Arab physicians and nurses who treat us, as was shows that Jewish - Arab relations elsewhere could be the senior rheumatologist who recently saw me through a different and better. It also helps that many Arab political painful bout of arthritis, with care and compassion. In activists in Haifa (some of whom I know personally) focus Haifa it is rare to encounter a pha rmacist who is not an their efforts on improving the lives of local Arabs, instead Arab. We feel fully comfortable putting our lives and of tying themselves to Hamas terrorists in Gaza or to the health in the hands of Arabs. geriatric kleptocracy that the Palestinian Authority has One of our Arab friends (a colleague from before we become. retired), told us that his mother praises God every morning No doubt Buttu would reply to all this that it is easy for living in the State of Israel. Her deceased husband had for me, a Jew, to see Haifa through rose - colored glasses. a brother (the colleague’s uncle) who chose to flee Haifa in Yet it is no less true that her own hatreds make it 1948. Sadly, he fell for the lies propagated by Hitler’s co - impossible for her to see beyond her falsehoods. conspirator and ally the “Grand” Mufti Hajj Amin al - Mr. Kellner is Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Jewish Husseini, who sowed fear by painting a grim picture for Thought at Shalem College, Jerusalem, and Wolfson Professor of Arabs of what would happen if the invading Arab armies Jewish Thought emeritus at the University of Haifa.

Ham as, Israel do not want war despite threats - analysis By Anna Ahronheim jpost.com June 16, 2021 The way the two sides handled the day shows just than a month since a ceasefire was signed, wa s Israel set to how much restraint they employed because neither go back to war? Hamas nor Israel want to go back to war so soon. Throughout the day incendiary and explosive balloons It seemed li ke we were watching the news on repeat: landed in southern Israel, igniting more than 20 fires, but Jewish nationalists marching through Jerusalem waving no rockets were fired. Israeli flags as Hamas in the Gaza Strip warned it would Israel had deployed Iron Dome batteries close to the fire rockets. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. Less capital, reinforced batteries in th e South and had thousands of Border Police officers secure the march. Foc u s o n Israel June 19, 2021 Page 10

There were several injuries and arrests during the the blessed al - Aq sa Mosque, change the path of civil controversial march, but overall the day ended with quiet aviation, and intensify the deployment of the Iron Dome, in the capital. confirm the achievement of the deterrence equation it The Iron Dome batteries that had been deployed close to imposed in the Battle of Saif al - Quds, and its success in the c apital stayed silent. Instead of rocket - warning sirens, imposing new rules of engagement on the enemy,” the the sirens of fire trucks rushing to the scene were heard. group said Tuesday night. The way that the two sides handled the day shows just The day was a test for Israel under the new government of how much restraint they employed, because neither Hamas Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, as well. nor Israel wants to go back to war so soon after the last Bennett is a known hawk on defense issues. Shortly after round in May. he began his term as defense minister in November 2018, Hamas, which pushed itself into a corner with its threats he warned Hamas t hat “no one will be immune” from and promises to the Palestinian people that it is the Israeli military action. The response to the launching of protector of al - Quds and al - Aqsa Mosque, resorted to its explosive balloons from the Strip would be similar to the pressure tactics of balloons and night demonstrations launching of rockets, he said. along the border, instead of rocket fire. “The lawless conduct of Hamas leadership is bringing us But the balloons and demonstrations were not launched closer to fatal acti on against them. We will not announce solely beca use of the flag march; the group is also trying to when or where, but no one will be immune,” Bennett said pressure Israel into letting the millions of dollars of Qatari at the time. cash into Gaza, as well as restart the fuel transfers into the And he has kept repeating that. blockaded coastal enclave. So overnight, IDF jets carried out strikes against empty Hamas knows it cannot afford another war right now, Hamas and PIJ compounds. They were the first airstrikes especially with Egyptians in the Strip handling all aid sent. sinc e the ceasefire and a warning to Hamas: we will not sit Egypt is an instrumental player when Israel and Gaza go to back quietly. war, and Hamas knows that angering its neighbor to the But does hitting empty compounds at night do anything to south would not be the smartest move on its part. deter the group? Israeli officials have said over and over A key strategic ally for Israe l, Cairo had reconnaissance again that “what was, will not be,” so in order to stay true planes in the air over northern Sinai and off the Gazan to their words, the Israel Air Force could have hit a target coast throughout the day, likely to watch for any moves with more significance. inside Gaza that would point to preparations of rocket fire. Opposition MK (Likud) tweeted Wednesday If it wants to, Hamas can keep the quiet; we have seen that morning that “for every attack in Israel, targeted over and over again. And not only did it prevent any fire assassinations and widespread attacks on Hamas targets from its operatives on Tuesday, but it made sure that should be carried out. Not empty compounds.” Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other groups toed the line as Perhaps the Israelis were also walking a tightrope, knowing well. that widespread attacks in the Strip would not be But the terrorist group still claimed victory, saying that it welcomed by Cairo and could instead lead to a diplomatic imposed a n ew set of rules on Israel following the 11 days crisis that Bennett could not afford so soon into his term. of conflict. Both I srael and Gaza have firepower to cause extensive “The courageous stances of the Palestinian resistance, and damage, but no matter the threats by leaders in Jerusalem its decisive decisions that forced the Israeli occupation to or Gaza, both sides are restrained both by Cairo and by change the path of the so - called March of Flags away from their own internal issues.

Current iss u e also available at suburbanorthodox.org . If you see something, se nd something” – editor