How Not to Fight Terror

Terror attacks in Israel typically set into motion a series of political responses. The prime minister expresses (genuine) sorrow for the victim and his family and then promises to apprehend the terrorist and “bring him to justice.” It’s all meant to sound reassuring, and it would be, if only it rang true.

The tragic shooting death Friday of 25-year-old Danny Gonen, Hy”d, was true to form. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the Cabinet meeting Sunday by sending his condolences to Gonen’s family and promising to apprehend his killer. “Right now, security forces are working diligently to find the murderer, of course, and to bring him to justice, to punish him with the utmost severity,” he said.

As usual, he said all the right things. As usual, there’s no follow-through.

For starters, as Hamodia’s military correspondent, A. Pe’er, reveals this week, the army had received accurate intelligence from the Shin Bet regarding plans to launch a terror attack in the area of Dolev last Friday.

Troops should have been out in large numbers; roadblocks should have been thrown up to stop and inspect potential terrorists; and back roads that were recently opened to Arabs, and which provide easy escape routes to nearby villages, should have been shut down.

This is the month of Ramadan, when anti-Israel sermons to the masses are coming fast and furious; it’s a time when the violence of Islamic State and other radical terror groups is attracting admirers and copycats. This is no time to take lightly intelligence reports warning of attacks at a specific location.

Second, Netanyahu’s call to bring Gonen’s killer to justice and punish him with the “utmost severity” of the law can’t be taken seriously in light of the state prosecution’s decision that very day to charge an Arab terrorist who stabbed a yeshivah student with “aggravated assault” instead of “attempted murder.”

The terrorist stabbed the bachur in the back with a 30-centimeter (12-inch) knife on Shavuos night, as the bachur and a friend were making their way to the Kosel. B’chasdei Shamayim the assailant missed vital organs, but that surely shouldn’t spare him the full force of law. A lesser charge of aggravated assault not only lessens the punishment, but, more importantly, the deterrence effect.

“We believe that the circumstances outlined in the indictment clearly call for a charge of attempted murder,” Moshe Yado, an attorney from the Choneinu organization who is representing the bachur, wrote in a letter to prosecutors. “In the case of my client, a minor who was stabbed in the back by a large knife, the wound was just a centimeter away from his spine and lungs. It is clear that the accused intended to commit murder.

“This was not a regular crime, but a nationalistic terror attack that is designed to strike fear into the hearts of all Israelis.”

Netanyahu must instruct Ayelet Shaked, the new justice minister (who, as a member of the Jewish Home party, presumably agrees that terrorists shouldn’t get any discounts from prosecutors), to implement a policy that addresses the imbalance and strikes a little fear in the hearts of the terrorists.

Netanyahu, who once spoke forcefully and eloquently about the importance of not caving in to terrorism, may hold the world’s record for freeing terrorists. In 2011, to gain the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, he released 1,027 who, according to a Hamas leader, were collectively responsible for the deaths of 569 Israeli civilians. Two years later, he agreed to release 104 killers for the dubious honor of sitting with P.A. chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the negotiating table. (In the end, he canceled the fourth release of 26 prisoners when it became obvious that Abbas was simply biding time at the negotiating table.)

To restore deterrence and stem the tide of terrorism, especially in this sensitive time, the government has to take extra precautions. It must put pikuach nefesh of Jews above all else, even if it means risking international censure for, for instance, curtailing the number of entrance permits to Har Habayis during Ramadan.

Second, it’s time to ensure that everyone in the entire government, including the state prosecutors, is on the same page when it comes to meting out justice to terrorists. In the recent elections, the government was given a mandate to rule without the need of a coalition with the left, so let it carry out the will of the electorate and come down hard on terrorism.

Finally, the only true solution to terrorism is protection from Above. All Jews everywhere need to contribute to the security of Israel by beseeching Hakadosh Baruch Hu to protect Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael and around the world.

This article appeared in print in the June 24th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.