We must act against inciters

By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

How many lone terrorists have carried out attacks during the ongoing “intifada of the individuals”? A hundred? A thousand? How many more will join them soon? And when we will stop calling them “lone” terrorists?

Does the fact that all of these “lone” terrorists have drawn their inspiration from the same source of organized and systematic hatred not turn them into a collective, even if there is no official guiding hand? And what can we do about the venomous poison spewed by the Palestinian Authority other than talk about it?

Is not a television or radio station that disseminates incitement the same as a gun? Are not the inciters responsible for the attacks that they inspired? If so, it is legitimate for us to act against them in the same way we act against terrorist operatives.

The Palestinian Authority has indeed helped Israel catch hundreds of Hamas terrorists. This is in the Palestinian Authority’s interest and it is good this is the case. But the Palestinian Authority is taking no steps to eliminate the cult of death that exists in Palestinian society. It is doing nothing to stop the calls to murder Jews wherever they are. And it gives money to the families of terrorists and glorifies the actions of the “shahids” (martyrs).

After creating a fertile breeding ground for terrorists, the Palestinian Authority helps us “pluck” them — sometimes before the act and sometimes after the act.

This is like someone who produces and sells dangerous drugs and also hands some of the drugs over to law enforcement. This is what the Palestinian Authority has been doing with terrorists for years.

At what point will we start exacting a real price from those who encourage terrorist activities? When will we stop talking about “atmosphere attacks” and start acting against those who create that atmosphere?

Perhaps the time has come to act not only against the perpetrators of terrorist attacks but also against those who sent them. Let’s limit their freedom, detain them, imprison them, confiscate their property, deport them if necessary and destroy their channels of incitement. We must not be satisfied with just capturing terrorist operatives — we have to act against those who inspire these operatives.