The truth is to be found in the 36 people killed during the past week, the worst weekly total since the beginning of this war. The truth is to be found in the opening of two new fronts in this war, with Palestinian terrorists now attacking yeshivot – religious colleges where young men study after high school – and banquet halls were engagement parties, bar mitzvahs, and other family celebrations are taking place. And the truth is to be found in the fact that the perpetrators of the most recent attacks have come from Palestinian settlements already supposedly cleared out by the IDF.
Perhaps most telling, though, the truth is to be found in the lack of a response to local terrorist threats across the country. Two examples will suffice.
In Beit Shemesh, a medium-sized city in Central Israel, there are dozens of construction sites administered by the City and by State bodies such as the Ministry of Housing and the Public Works Department. At each of these sites, dozens of Arabs find daily employment, often remaining at the site to sleep overnight.
Beit Shemesh is a young community, with a proliferation of kindergartens on practically every street. The city has one of the highest birthrates in the country, and it is a joy to see so many children happily playing in the parks, gardens and playgrounds throughout the city.
But that joy turns to concern and fear when the Arabs are left to roam freely throughout the city. Complaints to the authorities fall on deaf ears most of the time. The city of Beit Shemesh, as well as the Ministry of Housing and the Public Works Department, continue to employ Arabs on construction projects in the area, despite a tremendous increase in the number of calls to the police about suspicious persons loitering in the area.
Efrat is a town that has projected an image of moderate coexistence throughout its history. It is populated by educated professionals, many from English-speaking countries, who tend to be accepting of their neighbors and surroundings, which they have succeeded in combining with a fierce Zionist spirit and love for the land in which they live. Efrat has come to represent a modern version of the Zionist establishment that created the State of Israel.
In Efrat, the situation is a bit more severe than in Beit Shemesh. Several Efrat residents have already been killed or injured by Palestinian terrorists on the roadways near the community. Three weeks ago, a Palestinian who had worked in the area for years tried to blow himself up in a supermarket in the town. An alert resident killed him before he could detonate his bomb, saving the lives of hundreds of people.
This was only one of a growing number of incidents in which Arab employees of long standing attack their employers. The murder of Sami Rejwan in his office in Atarot two weeks ago is another example. And the instances where Arab agricultural workers have attacked, and sometimes killed, their employers in greenhouses and fields in various locations are too numerous to mention. It is becoming demonstrably risky, if not downright suicidal, to employ Arabs in Jewish communities.
That is why it was so surprising to hear last week of the decision of the Efrat Local Council to ban all Arabs from within the town limits. No other town in Israel, no matter how radical its population, has done this before. Yet here was moderate, enlightened Efrat taking the lead.
In other places throughout the country, such as Beit Shemesh, the State bodies responsible for our security, whether the army, the police, or the government as a whole, either do not take our security seriously, or are not provided with enough resources to ensure that security.
As a result of this institutional apathy, attacks such as we have experienced of late are not only possible, but they are happening with increasing frequency and audacity. This weekend, a restaurant right across the street from the Prime Minister’s residence was bombed, with 11 people killed and over 50 injured. And even before the reports of one attack have been completed, the next has already taken place.
What the Efrat Local Council has done is a huge step toward protecting its citizens where no one else is prepared to do so. For this, Efrat is to be commended. The situation in Beit Shemesh is the exact opposite, and herein lies a microcosm of all that is wrong with the Israeli defense concept.
Like Beit Shemesh, the Israeli government is not prepared to provide real security for its citizens. The Prime Minister has dropped all pretense of demanding a cessation of violence from our enemies, and is prepared to embark on negotiations under fire – the precise offense for which his predecessor was run out of office a year ago. Bombs and shootings occur daily, and reporters are now being posted to hospitals out of convenience, so that they will be there waiting when the inevitable day’s haul of victims comes through the doors of the emergency rooms.
But like Efrat, there is still the spirit of Zionism – the demand to be allowed to live securely in the Jewish State, which is, after all, why we are here in the first place. Moderate, enlightened Efrat is showing what must become the chosen course of action for all Israeli communities, and for the State as a whole. Keep the Arabs out of our communities, so that we will not be a part of the daily haul.
Six weeks ago, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein made what is possibly the most non-sensical ruling in Israeli judicial history. He ruled that the slogan “No Arabs – no Attacks” was incitement to racism, while at the same time closing the file against an Arab Knesset Member who incited to violence against Israel.
Last week, Efrat provided the answer to Rubinstein’s insanity. Rather than sufficing with mere slogans, Efrat acted on the idea. Arabs are no longer allowed in Efrat, and attacks are today a much more remote possibility within the community than they were two weeks ago. It is hoped that the rest of the country quickly follows Efrat’s lead. Countless Jewish lives depend on it.
Copyright 2002. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
