The Conflict in Yitzhar is the Defense Minister’s Fault

By Michael Fuah

The way I see it, those responsible for the intensifying “price tag” conflict in Yitzhar are Israel’s security chiefs. When the Defense Minister acts like a hilltop youth – just that  instead of spraying graffiti or puncturing tires, he destroys homes – he plays into the hands of the “price tag” youth.

The ridiculous and subliminally anti-Semitic reactions of the Minister of Internal Security and the President against an entire segment of society prove that we have learned nothing. For years, the police fought the Haredim on the Bar-Ilan Road over closure on Shabbat – until former Minister of Internal Security Kahalani came along and proved that a solution can be reached with no fanfare. Actually, the police had been the main cause of the weekly conflict.

Before the Expulsion from Gush Katif, an entire segment of Israeli society was threatened and accused of being violent. In the end, it turned out that the cruelty and violence were  perpetrated by those who destroyed homes and lives for no reason – falsely and fraudulently promising a housing solution for all and then throwing the ‘settlers’ to the dogs.

I warned of this before the Expulsion, and I am warning everyone again: The sheep-like silence of the Judea and Samaria community leaders and the quiet agreement to the State’s disgraceful and discriminatory conduct against the residents of Yitzhar – hoping that if we keep in line they will forgive us – will exact a heavy price from the settlements in Judea and Samaria.

We do not have to agree with the opinions of the Yitzhar residents and we do not have to agree with the actions of some of them. But we, as a society, are not responsible for them. It is the responsibility of the police to deal with them according to law.

We are responsible, however, to ensure that the Defense Minister does not act like a neighborhood bully, indiscriminately breaking and destroying – harming citizens with no due process of law – because somebody made him angry. Even convicted terrorists’ homes are not razed because of a whim of a minister of bureaucrat.

This internecine fighting must be stopped. The Defense Minister should be sitting in the chair of the responsible adult. Currently, he is not there.