Change reality — by force

By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

Yes, we can add fortifications; we can surround ourselves with more fences and metal detectors; we can add more concrete blocks to stop ramming attacks; we can build another wall, another watchtower, add more barbed wire. Yes, we can add another line of defense. But it would be only a matter of time before the other side, inundated with inciting rhetoric and hate, outsmarts these measures and hits us where it hurts.

It turns out terrorism, even in its most primitive form, is no less creative that the defensive actions we take. We shut many doors only to see it breach its way through the windows. We paved bypass roads to avoid driving through Palestinian towns, but the terrorists overcome this obstacle. While defense measures are not meaningless, they can only do so much.

Some people insist that another Operation Defense Shield won’t remedy the situation. This is not entirely true.

The perpetrators in this recent wave may been acting on their own initiative and have no affiliation with terrorist groups — and they may have been acting on the spur of the moment — but that doesn’t mean another Operation Defensive Shield (or however you want to call it) won’t have any effect.

Why? Because these terrorists have been motivated by the general atmosphere. Almost all of the “lone terrorists” drink from the poisonous cup of incitement, jihad; they all hear the praise for terrorism, shahids (martyrs) and jihad. All this venom originates from within the Palestinian Authority.

We must focus our efforts on changing the atmosphere because defensive measures won’t do the job. A comprehensive effort to root out terrorism will have a psychological impact whose overall effect will be as important as the operational outcome of any military campaign.

It is not enough to round up terrorists, to stop them in their tracks, to kill them or defend against them. We are duty-bound to change the atmosphere and the overall climate in which they operate. The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security agency conduct raids in Judea and Samaria on a regular basis; practically every night ends with arrests of terrorist suspects.

But these raids, which are based on actionable and pinpointed intelligence, cannot bring about a new atmosphere or a paradigm shift.

The stabbers may not be on the IDF’s list of potential targets (known as the target bank), but that repository should nevertheless be used as part of a campaign. This will benefit Israel on a psychological and operational level. Not only will the IDF seize thousands of weapons from caches in refugee camps, villages and in alleys of main cities, but it will also dry the wellsprings that perpetuate hate within the Palestinian Authority — namely, television and radio stations.

We must seize the initiative and be proactive, but not just militarily. We must resume construction in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem to make sure the Palestinians understand that their actions only hurt their cause. To borrow from the Waze navigation app, they will have to find alternative routes.

Some within the Palestinian Authority have already become frustrated with the “knife intifada”; they have already realized that it will achieve nothing. They know full well that arming children with knives and sending them to their deaths will achieve nothing. The Middle East Media Research Institute has prepared a captivating report on this development and Israel Hayom’s weekend supplement will have a lengthy feature piece on it this Friday. Parents from the small village of Sa’ir have recently petitioned the Hebron governor on this matter. They demanded he take action to ensure that their teens would no longer be sent to their deaths with knives in their hands. These new voices are rare, and they will soon disappear unless Israel does something to effect a dramatic change in the overall atmosphere, which only breeds these attacks.