Coteret

This morning’s (December 13 2009) Haaretz (Hebrew edition only) runs a report by Amos Harel, which describes a new method the General Security Service (GSS) has found to crack down on settler attacks on Palestinians

Haaretz has learned that over the past three months five right-wing activists were summoned to warning talks [sic], where they were told by GSS men that they saw them as responsible for the ‘Price Tag‘ events.

Hopefully the GSS sees this a long-term law enforcement technique because, judging by this weekend’s pyrotechnics, it has yet bear fruit. The perpetrators themselves do not appear fazed. This Friday’s Jewish Voice, a weekly ‘Price Tag‘ organization leaflet (Hebrew original here,) has a monologue by one Efraim Ben Shohat describing his GSS interrogation. It ends with the following passage

But it turns out that even the General Security Service of the State of Israel, comprised of expert psychologists and the best and smartest professionals in the country cannot overcome a simple Jew who believes in blessed G-d!

In its report “A Semblance of Law,” Yesh Din describes in detail the systematic lack of law enforcement on violent settlers. One of its major recommendations is that the West Bank Police actually investigate attacks and that minimal resources be allocated for this purpose. Until that happens, “warning talks” and  hand-wringing will have to fill the gap.

Even at this juncture, it’s hard to demand diversion of law enforcement resources to the West Bank when they are stretched so thin in Jerusalem, for example. Just this Friday, dozens of officers were busy arresting 25 Israelis protesting against the Shiekh Jarah evictions who refused to disperse when ordered to.  Some of them were even forced to squirt pepper spray into the eyes of the dangerous Dr. Eyal Nir at point-blank range (video here.) Holding cells are also in short supply, full of menaces to society such as Vadim Antonevich, a documentary film-maker slapped with 25 days for walking his dog without a leash in the German Colony.

From a report in this morning’s Maariv (December 13 2009) by Amir Buhbut

“This is a religious terror attack,” said a senior officer in the Central Command. “The people who tossed the firebombs knew exactly what they were doing…Furthermore, the security establishment is voicing harsh criticism of the incitement being heard in Judea and Samaria synagogues. “Anyone allowing the distribution of leaflets that call to harm Civil Administration officials and their vehicles, should not be surprised when a mosque is set on fire,” said the source. “It is interesting to wonder what the reactions would be if it were the opposite.”

Yediot’s Zvi Zinger reports directly from the horses mouth

“The idea of a ‘price tag’ is to operate like the terror organizations,” explained one of the activists from the settlement outposts. “The activists realized that the GSS doesn’t have the capacity to prevent lone activists from executing those operations, and that is why a decision was made to take sophisticated action, without orderly leaders and without any prior organization.”

Puts the outrage over the New York Times use of “Jewish nationalists” to describe settlers into proportion, doesn’t it?

UPDATE: In a surreal twist, both Yitzhar and Tapuach (the settlement that the IDF suspects the mosque arsonists came from), are both included in the new National Priorities Map approved by the Israeli cabinet today. As a result their residents will receive a host of financial benefits. Inclusion of isolated settlements in the new map is intended as a consolation for the “settlement freeze.”

Reading some of the sanctimonious condemnations of Friday’s torching of a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf, one could easily be led to believe that the “price tag” terror tactic was invented last week. A close observer of current events in the West bank would also note that no mention is made of the spiritual leadership publicly sanctioning  and encouraging these attacks.

Take Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in Yitzhar, for example. In early November he published the “Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles.” Just last week, ahead of a revival meeting with the notorious Rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg (author of Baruch Hagever, an ode to Cave of Patriarchs murderer Baruch Goldstein) he published an article with specific instructions on this type of action in response to the “settlement freeze.”

This morning’s (December 13 2009) Yediot made the connection. In a news item entitled “The people who want to set things ablaze,” Zvi Singer et al report that

A number of the settler rabbis voiced their support for that mode of action and, by so doing, increased awareness about the issue and created a type of internal buzz among the activists. For example, Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in Yitzhar published an article in the extremist right wing newsletter called Hakol Heyhudi [The Jewish Voice] in which he explicitly called for operations like the arson at the Yasouf mosque. “Operations of reciprocal responsibility,” is how Rabbi Elitzur chose to define them. “We too have strength and we too shall use it at a time and place of our choosing,” he wrote. “If the Jews don’t have quiet—the Arabs won’t have quiet either; If the Arabs win because of violence against Jews—the Jews too will win because of violence against Arabs.”

This Friday’s (December 11 2009) edition of the Jewish Voice, entitled “Fighting the Freeze,” reiterates the importance of such attacks (full Hebrew document here)

Another important “tip” in this context: Whoever wants to win does not limit himself to protest, nor does he let the other side determine the boundaries of the battle. We need to choose for ourselves the sector of the struggle. Why, for example, wait  in the settlements for the violent-frost-forces [sic], and not send a small delegation of our own to the nearby Arab village, to check out the freeze situation there? Believe me that all the [IDF] forces will immediately retreat to the Arab village…

Yediot fails to mention that the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva is the recipient of generous government funding, perhaps because Haaretz was the one to expose this fact. According to Israel’s premier expert on NGO funding, Prof. Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor, however, this is just a fact of life in Israel, as normal as funding of youth movements, and does not warrant any extraordinary action. Responding to a direct question on Od Yosef Hai, he tells the Jerusalem Post’s Shmuel Rosner that

the state is used to funnel large sums of money to various sectors and institutions related to political parties  – from kibbuzim to youth movements and yeshivot —  with numerous stops in between.

Settlement construction spree that preceded freeze

Zvi Singer, Danny Adino Ababa and Itamar Eichner, Yediot, December 8 2009

The security cabinet decision to stop construction in the territories did not come as a complete surprise to the settlers of the Etzion and Talmon-Dolev blocs. In a race against time, the settlers managed to obtain construction permits and to lay the foundations for hundreds of new housing units immediately before the settlement construction freeze went into effect.

A high-ranking official who is knowledgeable about the issue of construction in Judea and Samaria confirmed to Yedioth Ahronoth that the settlers had laid foundations for some 450 new housing units in the four months preceding the freeze. Most of those new housing units are in the settlements Har Gilo, Tekoa, Keidar, Rosh Tzurim, Alon Shvut and Dolev. Sources on the Settlers Council cited a higher number than that and claimed to have laid the foundations to close to 1,000 new housing units. Since the construction freeze does not apply to buildings whose foundations were laid before the construction freeze went into effect, the settlers will now be permitted to complete the construction of the new housing units in question.

Read more…

On the same morning that Maariv’s Ben Caspit relays Israeli diplomatic officials’ cries of ‘gewald’ after the US and UK ditched them on Jerusalem, Attorney Dov Weissglas tells them that it’s time to get real. Weissglas, Sharon’s confidant and liaison to the US administration, is hardly a bleeding heart leftist. One of his major claims to international fame was an Haaretz interview, in which he explained that disengagement was intended to put the Palestinians in “formaldehyde.” Largely quiet during the Olmert government, since Netanyahu’s ascent he has been working hard to position himself as a hard-nosed realist.

A step of sobriety

Op-ed, Dov Weissglas, Yediot, December 7 2009

What is missing in the decision on the construction freeze?  It lacks real ability to affect what is happening.  It will not lead to a real stop of construction in Judea and Samaria, except for a brief time span, and will not bring about a change in the diplomatic environment.  The Palestinians do not view it as a reason to renew negotiations, and the international community, so it would appear, was not overly impressed by the Israeli initiative.  The Quartet refused to congratulate it, the US and the other major countries of the world do not intend to declare that in the wake of this initiative the Palestinians are called upon to return to the negotiating table.

The initial, almost automatic suspicion, that the plan encountered around the world, was successfully confirmed by some of the ministers belonging to the forum of seven: They supported it in the discussions, and after it was passed, explained that it was actually meaningless and that within ten months of “delay,” construction would be renewed with full vigor.  In this context, there is great sense in the contention of the settlers that the freeze is unnecessarily oppressive: They are being harmed, but [the freeze] is bringing no benefit.

What does the freeze plan have?  The government’s forced decision—regardless of its practical value—is evidence of the fact that it is starting to accept the steadily worsening diplomatic reality, which is making the continued Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria (including East Jerusalem) impossible.  The dispute surrounding the settlements and their expansion has long since ceased to be a matter between Israel and the Palestinians, it has become the cause of a confrontation between Israel and the world.

Read more…

UPDATED AT BOTTOM: December 7 2009 – A day late, Yediot puts two and two together

Since the announcement last week of the “settlement freeze,” Israel has witnessed an escalating settler rebellion. Most of the action has been civil disobedience, which I will not condemn as a matter of principle, despite the fact that its organizers’ salaries are largely paid from my taxes. But past experience and IDF warnings indicate that we can expect a surge in “price tag” attacks against Palestinians.

A news item in this morning’s (December 6 2009) Yediot surveys the mood among West bank settlers and ends with the following passage

“We’ll expel the soldiers from the settlements”

Zvi Zinger,Yediot, December 6 2009 [page 4]

[...]

The radical right is also adding oil to the fire. An article in its internet-distributed pamphlet “The Jewish Voice” includes a call to “execute targeted operations against the evildoers, invade Civil Administration offices and ransack them, as well as operate violently [sic] against the Palestinians, deepen the refusal to serve in the army and not recognize Israeli courts.”

The article was written by Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of the “Od Yosef Hai” yeshiva in Yitzhar.

Rabbi Yosef Elitzur and the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva have recently emerged from obscurity with the publication of the “Handbook for the killing of Gentiles” in early November. A few days later, Haaretz reported that the Yeshiva was generously funded by the Government of Israel.

Rabbi Elitzur

The excerpt looks like an editorial hatchet job. The style indicates a paraphrased summary, despite the double quotation marks. I want to read the original. Read more…

RELATED POSTS:  Yediot: Settlers quickly find ‘freeze’ workaround | Settler attacks on Palestinians upset even the most chauvinistic Israeli pundits | [Video] IDF “concerned” that soldiers are participating in settler “revenge attacks” [but doing next to nothing about it]

Yaron London, an elder statesmen of Israeli journalism, television personality and respected intellectual, has a reputation for saying what others think. In his Yediot column this morning (November 30 2009) he had this to say about law enforcement on settlers in the West Bank

Israel’s governments have accustomed us to the sense that the rebellion of the annexers of the occupied territories is a law of nature, or perhaps a version of “cops and robbers,” in which the cops are not real police officers and the robbers no more than good boys disguised as criminal offenders.  Youthful folly should not be punished, perhaps only gently reprimanded, and the policemen and soldiers will quarrel with them cautiously.  Some of the buildings will be demolished, and then rebuilt, demolished, and so on and so forth, until the spineless jellyfish known as the state is worn down, and they will remain standing.

Full translation after the jump.

Read more…

RELATED POST: Yediot column: Israel “the spineless jellyfish” has no will to stand up to lawless settlers

Settlers lay mock foundations

Zvi Singer and Itamar Eichner, Yediot, November 30 2009 [page 6]

Immediately after the prime minister announced a settlement construction freeze, settlers in a number of settlements rushed to lay fake foundations in areas that had been cleared for construction. Their goal was to make the sites in question appear in the aerial photographs to be taken by the Defense Ministry as if they contained buildings in mid-construction, the foundations of which were already fully laid.

The settlers, it appears, knew in advance about the Defense Ministry’s intention to take aerial photographs thanks to a document that fell into their hands, and they prepared in advance accordingly. The construction freeze orders stipulate the cancellation of construction permits that had already been issued for thousands of housing units because the foundations for those housing units were not laid. Read more…

Americans raid settlements

Ben Kaspit, Maariv, November 25 2009 [page 5]

The Americans are taking off the gloves and going into the field: In the past few days, American diplomats, who apparently belong to envoy George Mitchell’s team, have started to travel through Judea and Samaria and tour the Jewish settlements there, holding interviews and inquiries with the local leaders and other settlers, in order to get the feel of the situation on the ground.

The first of these diplomats arrived on Monday in the settlement Efrat.  This is Cindy-Noga Trin, a diplomat stationed at the US consulate in Jerusalem, who appears to belong to envoy Mitchell’s team.  She visited Efrat, a large Jewish settlement, and interviewed Council Chairman Oded Revivi at length, and four additional residents (one of whom is a relative of Ari Harrow, the prime minister’s bureau chief).

Trin arrived in a bulletproofed van, accompanied by a driver and security guard, and was businesslike and polite.  She took out a thick notebook and filled it diligently.  Every word that came out of the mouth of Council Chairman Revivi, a lieutenant colonel in reserves, who was elected to his post about a year ago, was written down and filed.  “We want to get a feel on the situation on the ground,” she said to Revivi, “my next stops are Kiryat Arba, and then Tapuah junction.”

The conversation was similar to a cross-examination.  The bizarre part of the event was when the US diplomat repeatedly asked Revivi, “why aren’t you continuing to build?” and “who is preventing you from building?”  Revivi explained that Efrat had not received building permits for the past eight years.

Trin persisted: “The city is supposed to reach 30,000 residents, you have master plans here, who is stopping construction?  And how long haven’t you received permits?”  Revivi explained: “Here, in Givat Hazayit, in the heart of the settlement, there is no expansion of the perimeter line, there are plans here for 400 housing units, the Housing Ministry completed the infrastructure at an investment of millions, but the land is not being marketed.”  Trin asked, “why?” and Revivi said that he had no idea, and showed her two other hills (Givat Hadagan and Givat Hatamar) with the same problem.

Trin took an interest in the way of life in the settlement, the sources of livelihood and the relations with the Arab neighbors.  Revivi planned a tour for her in the nearby village, Wadi Nis, and coordinated the matter with the Arab residents, but Trin’s appearance with a large bulletproofed vehicle and security guards caused the village residents to change their minds.

Revivi told the American diplomat about the good neighborly relations with the village residents.  “There is no fence between Efrat and the Arab villages.  Together with our Arab neighbors, we fought against the fence and won,” he said.  “This is the only place where Arabs and Jews demonstrated today and prevented a fence.  Our Arab neighbors have called twice to warn us against terror cells that were on their way here, and the warnings proved to be true.  We provide Wadi Nis with doctors, medicines and water, we renovate their water lines, they work here, we visit there, the relations are excellent and there are friendships and a lot of mutual help.”

Revivi told Trin that although the American initiative looked like a clever way to bypass the relationship between the governments, he was very glad for it.  “President Obama is trying to solve this conflict by means of satellite footage,” he explained.  “If he were to go out into the field, see things up close, understand that we live here with our neighbors in coexistence and study the everyday life here, he would understand the complexity of the story better.”

The meeting lasted for more than an hour, in which Cindy-Noga Trin filled a notebook in small handwriting.  The feeling, Revivi said later, was of a painstaking and detailed cross-examination.  She did not miss a word, and wrote everything down.  When she asked him who was stopping the construction, Revivi raised an eyebrow, since it is the Americans, and mainly Trin’s boss George Mitchell, who are the address for this question, but he answered nonetheless.  Afterwards, Trin met with Boaz Columbus, principal of the high school in Karmei Tzur, and with Ora Yanai and Rahel Goshen, Efrat residents who belong to the founding generation of the settlement.  The last one to be interviewed was Eve Harrow, a relative of Ari Harrow, who deals with public relations.

This surprising visit to Efrat is supposed to be the first of a series.  The Americans are descending on [the settlements] in the field.  Mitchell is determined to understand what is happening on the ground, and to compare what is happening with what he is being told.  All this is taking place a few days before Prime Minister Netanyahu’s expected announcement of a construction freeze in the settlements—an announcement that will probably not satisfy the Palestinians.  Mitchell may be trying now to rectify the errors of the past and to check what is being done on the ground before he issues statements and demands that could complicate the situation of the sides.

According to Haaretz, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced Yesterday (November 22 2009) after his meeting with Mubarak that once Israeli-Palestinian negotiations restart, Israel will freeze settlements. A closer look revealsthat he is promising something Israel is presently committed to — no new settlements, no land confiscation and evacuation of “outposts”. The headline may, however, may be indicative of a new Israeli messaging strategy — “we will freeze settlements but the Palestinians are refusing resume negotiations” — aimed at moving the ball to Palestinian court.

See this morning’s (November 23 2009) Yediot article below describing how the IDF is preparing for a settlement freeze “as part of Israel’s political preparations for a resumption of the talks with the Palestinians” and that this move “went hand in hand with President Shimon Peres’s statement yesterday in Cairo to the effect that Israel would cease all construction in the settlements upon the resumption of talks with the Palestinians.”

IDF prepares for construction freeze in settlements

Alex Fishman, Yediot, November 23 2009 [page 9]

The Defense Ministry’s legal counsel has recently finalized the preparation of military orders that enjoin a full moratorium on construction everywhere in Judea and Samaria.

The military orders were drafted in coordination with the Prime Minister’s Office as part of Israel’s political preparations for a resumption of the talks with the Palestinians. The orders that were drafted by the Defense Ministry will become “orders by the OC Central Command,” who is the sovereign over the West Bank, immediately upon a decision by the Israeli political echelon to resume talks with the Palestinian Authority.

In the course of their most recent visit to the United States, the defense minister and prime minister apprised senior American officials with whom they met, including President Barack Obama and special US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, of the preparations Israel was making in advance of the possibility that talks with the Palestinians would be renewed. In the course of those meetings an Israeli commitment was made to impose a complete moratorium on construction in the settlements.

In the past number of months there has been an unprecedented boom of both legal and illegal construction across Judea and Samaria. The legal construction involves construction work on the basis of old permits that were not acted on, as well as the approximately 3,000 permits that were issued by the Defense Ministry legalizing the completion of buildings that were already in the process of being built. The settlers’ various settlement apparatuses had also prepared well in advance for the possibility of a construction freeze and for the past number of months have been making a concerted effort to build as much as possible before the OC Central Command’s order goes into effect.

Informed sources said that Israel was likely to find itself facing a strongly-worded American protest once the latter realized, by means of aerial photographs and inspections on the ground, that the actual scope of construction in Judea and Samaria exceeded the scope that had been authorized by the Israeli government as it had been reported to the them. Informed sources in the security establishment said that issuing orders enjoining a construction freeze upon the resumption of the political negotiations went hand in hand with President Shimon Peres’s statement yesterday in Cairo to the effect that Israel would cease all construction in the settlements upon the resumption of talks with the Palestinians.