ANALYSIS: Father of 10 Murdered – Israel Reacts With Heavy Hand

Only today – a day after the brutal murder of Hallel Yaffah Ariel, Hy”d; and hours after the horrifying terror attack on Road 60, where the menahel of Yeshivat Otniel, Rabbi Michael Mark, Hy”d, was murdered, and his wife and two children injured – has the military leadership of Israel started to think that perhaps the time has come for a different approach.

Just this morning, the cousin of Muhammad Tararia, the murderer of Hallel Yaffah Ariel, was trying to stab soldiers at the entrance to Me’aras Hamachpeilah. Tararia and his cousin are both residents of the Palestinian village of Bani Naim.

The Israeli government finally understood that if it is not going to react strongly, the people will do so on their own. In order not to lose control, today the government imposed new regulations. Some of these decisions were made by Avigdor Liberman, the new Minister of Defense, and others were made by the Prime Minister. With Liberman’s instructions, the IDF put a travel ban on the entire Har Chevron area, where 600,000 Palestinians live. The residents cannot leave the towns or villages at all. This prevents them from traveling through the State of Israel, driving through local roads, and going to work.

Liberman also decided that all Bani Naim Palestinians will lose work permits in Israel. This will affect thousands of people.

Furthermore, as the Palestinian Authority has been making payments to terrorists and their families – more money for worse terror attacks – Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered that Israel reduce the amount of tax money it transfers to the PA each month, by the amount the PA is paying to terrorists and their families. Israel accused the PA of encouraging the terror attacks through social media and the payments.

Will these steps will stop the terror attacks? No one can guarantee.

The next step will be deportations. In a survey conducted among terrorists imprisoned in Israel, the terrorists said that the fear of deportation would be a step that would have caused them to think twice before committing terror attacks.

Let’s remember that the Palestinian areas in Har Chevron have been known, for generations, as a place of Jew-hatred. What the Israeli security forces have ordered now was done to prevent the next terror attack – no easy task.

May Hashem give us a peaceful Shabbos.