Israeli security forces wrestle over settler policing
Barak orders IDF to cut ties with yeshiva; rabbi told students to defy orders to evacuate settlements.
By Amos Harel Tags: Israel newsDefense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday to sever ties with the Har Bracha yeshiva in the West Bank, whose dean urged his students to defy military orders if they are told to evacuate settlements or halt settlement construction while serving in the army.
The move came after Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the dean of the religious seminary, refused to report for a meeting with Barak to discuss his support for resisting army orders.
Barak did not want this confrontation and did everything he could to avoid it. When the General Staff first leaked its recommendation to remove Har Bracha from the hesder program, in which soldiers are allowed to combine their military service with religious studies at certain yeshivas, Barak's office was reluctant to respond. Barak evaded direct questions from reporters on the issue. When the Defense Ministry finally decided to summon Melamed to a hearing, under pressure from the army, Barak at first handed off the matter to his deputy, Matan Vilnai.
So why did Barak announce that Har Bracha would no longer be considered a hesder yeshiva? One reason is that Melamed simply left the defense minister no choice. Barak tried to let the rabbi beat a retreat, but Melamed refused to take the hints. From the moment that a direct (and highly publicized) confrontation was created, it was Barak, ironically, who was unable to back down. Melamed barely agreed to meet with Vilnai and refused to retract his statements when he did so. He rejected Barak's invitation on Sunday on the ground that "the rabbi does not work for the defense minister."
Then there are the political considerations. Barak is in crisis in terms of his public image. He had not yet recovered from the scandal surrounding the expensive hotel suite he stayed in while attending the Paris Air Show when it was revealed that his housekeeper isn't legally allowed to work in the country. The settlement construction freeze helped him scrounge up a point or two among what was left of his voters, but he spoiled it for them by his contortions over the Golan Heights referendum and his belated opposition to redrawing the national priorities map to benefit the settlements. In such circumstances Barak cannot be seen as being less resolute than Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who passed the hot potato of Melamed to him.
Freezing point
Barak, like the entire defense establishment, was not always so decisive when it came to enforcing cabinet resolutions in the West Bank. A good example of this is the fierce argument between him and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch at the cabinet meeting two weeks ago at which the construction freeze was discussed. Barak tried to get Aharonovitch to agree to shift police manpower from the north and south of the country to the West Bank, to protect the inspectors bringing the freeze orders to the settlements.
Aharonovitch refused, saying the IDF is responsible for the West Bank. It has at its disposal 4,000 Border Police officers deployed throughout the West Bank and 1,200 Israel Police officers. Barak and Ashkenazi can deploy them at will, Aharonovitch said, "but beyond that I will not add a single police officer."
Aharonovitch's argument is simple: Recently, partly due to the improved security situation, the police are free to do much more in the way of traditional policing. The result, when combined with the extensive efforts to curb organized crime, is a significant decrease in crime, particularly property offenses. Deploying additional officers to the West Bank will cause an immediate rise in crime within the Green Line.
But in the background lurks a much deeper and more protracted debate. Ashkenazi has expressed his disinclination to put the IDF in the vanguard of the confrontation with the settlers. This is connected to Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, as well as to the large proportion of religiously observant officers and soldiers in combat units.
Ashkenazi has told the political leaders more than once that the army will carry out its appointed mission in this area but will not volunteer to spearhead the battle. The police, he argued, must be in the front line. It seems he is not content to stop at that. About a year ago the previous public security minister, Avi Dichter, was surprised by the well-reasoned argument put forth by his successor as the head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, for why the police, and not the IDF, should lead any future evacuations of settlements or outposts. It is dangerous to the army, he argued, to pit soldiers against civilians.
Senior figures in the Public Security Ministry saw the Shin Bet's position as having been coordinated with the chief of staff, and found the argument difficult to accept. Not only because the IDF is the sovereign authority in the West Bank, but also because only it has enough personnel to allow the army to be responsible for a more extensive measure in the future. If dealing with the settlements is to be a police mission, all the police officers stationed within the Green Line would have to be deployed to the West Bank.
This is not an isolated or incidental debate. It appears that no one is eager to implement cabinet resolutions that involve settlers. Although the police did provide security for the freeze inspectors, they didn't rush to follow up with investigations or arrests. In the more extreme cases, it is the settlers themselves who will dictate the conduct of the establishment. The most prominent example of this is the burning of the mosque in Yasuf last week. When it comes to an event whose potential consequences are so serious, the police as well as the Shin Bet pitched in to investigate and to capture those responsible.
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The IDF and Shin Bet will put on a show here and there but they will not really use their full power to implement this bogus freeze. The zealots who fill the officers rank will not follow orders to evacuate since they follow a "higher" law and their interpretation of lebensraum means Jews move in and Arabs are expelled. The cosmetic work that Israel will let the public see will be carried out by the police which has a higher percentage of non-Jews in their ranks.
If settlers are not controlled and the Yeshivas done are used to avoid 3 years of military service and act as a world alone then Israel is doomed. At the moment it is not a democracy because all are not equal and treatment is disparit. Heradi and Religious Zionists on top then the rest of the "stranger' (Non heradi) Jews and finally Arabs of all types on the bottom
In Israel, the army is a reflection of the current Israeli persona; it always has been; when it indeed was "the most moral army in the world", and now, when that label is open to question.
AJ: "By international laws when a land a captured over a war the land is not to be returned." A large number of guys tried that argument back in 1945, sunshine. The court was not impressed, and plenty of those "we grabbed it, so we could keep it" guys ended up swinging from the end of a rope.
No one should evacuate because this land was bought at a very high price. By international laws when a land a captured over a war the land is not to be returned. That would be a big insult to the families of the fallen ones. Canada would be returned to the Indians, Sweden to the Eskimos, Texas to Mexico, Jordan to the Bebdouins or Palestinians.
Bibi should take a public vote if to evaluate a place or if to freeze any construction ever!! In a democratic country, it is the people voice that counts! No Jew should turn against another Jew. We are one strong united independent ISRAEL - Am Israel Hai
Between Stockholm and Tehran, Israel of 2009 is much closer to Tehran. From birth to death, from circumcision to funeral, from the establishment of the state to the establishment of the last of the illegal settlements and outposts in the West Bank - Israel is operating in the shadow of the commandments of religion. Israelis should be honest with themselves and admit it already: The country is too religious and its going to be like Saudi Arabia
Why is it so difficult to arrest these settlers. If it was an Arab burning a synagogue he would be in jail already. Simple.
If the Israeli Left actions and policies weren't perverted and evil . the Israeli left tyranie wouldn't fear the loss of control to dictate the conduct of the establishment ( the IDF, police , prosecution, Judges etc...) So in order to stay in power the Israeli left tries to strike a blow to the national religious sector while they can still do so. Its not about the lefty perverted rule of law; its about raw power politics in the Jewish State .
It would help the situation if Shimon Peres and all the others responsible for the proliferation of these settlements would admit their errors and support aggressive control of the settler criminals and support the elimination of most settlements with the exception of those which will be traded for other land and funds. Then, Israel can help the Palestinian state to thrive and Israel will have peace and prosperity.
"All the ones who were have taken refuge in private enterprise, abroad or in academia, unfortunately" ... due, in part, to successive right-wing regimes that bred despair...
"The army dominates Israel in a way not seen in western democracies. " QED
The mistake is the marriage between independent educational institutions within the IDF framework. Hesder plays the democratic academic freedom card and fidelity to its brand of Zionism, which must entail subservience to the military during active service. Either abolish hesder or absorb it into a fully military environment with military control over what is taught there. Whichever it is, make sure that not one settler does his or her army service or reserves duty in the West Bank. In the private sector, it's called conflict of interest. The muddle is a political one and Israel will find itself tying itself into ever tighter knots as long as political courage to face the country's crippling ideological dilemmas remains absent. Up to you, our elected MKs, to sort that one out. Is any of you up to it? No? All the ones who were have taken refuge in private enterprise, abroad or in academia, unfortunately.
"It is dangerous to the army, he argued, to pit soldiers against civilians." If the police is there for civilians only, it should be protecting them. ALL of them, regardless of their provenance. No? They are the responsibility of the democratic state of Israel, no? Or are you saying that the police is only there for Israeli-nationality civilians and the army is there to protect the police and those civilians only against the other civilians who came with the territory conquered and object to being progressively deprived of their homes and their human rights? What protection do the civilians who came with the territory get then? None? Ah, I see. 'Nother question: the unprotected ones throw stones and knives when threatened.... well, sometimes they do. They defend themselves with their fists as it were, because no-one else official is there to do it for them. Why the surprise? Or have I got it all wrong?
The army dominates Israel in a way not seen in western democracies. If the IDF goes religious then so does Israel and it's goodbye to any idea of Israel being a western democrcacy. If Ashkenazi doesn't think the IDF can be trusted to confront the settlers, then Israel's got real problems. No progress on finding the mosque-burners? What about those settlers who spray-painted stars of David on muslim graves? Were they ever caught?
... emissaries-of-the-Almighty who would gladly take-over-the-country... ... if Barak sticks-to-his-guns, it would do-the-trick... ... chazak ve-ematz, Barak!
settlers are always presumed innocent unless whilst with palestinians it's the other way around. Israeli's law-enforcement agency's in the Westbank are completely focused on policing and keeping the palestinians down. Settlers are perceived as true Israeli pioneers, to be treated with velvet gloves.
The only things Jewish that survive is Torah true Judaism. Come what may, the study of Torah true Judaism and the values that it possesses are the only thing that will endure. Barak and his ilk will soon be part of history
in Lebanon during the 1970's: Each A State within a State!
1) The West Bank is occupied territory. 2) The occupying power is the IDF. 3) All "authority" therefore rests with the IDF. Now, so very sorry, Gabi, but with "authority" goes a little concept called "responsibility" i.e. the buck stops with your gang of Guys With Guns, and not with Aharonovitch and his guys. Q: You don't like that? A: Well, stiff shit, sunshine. Because it *is* your job, no matter how distastefull, and if that leads to you having to "pit soldiers against civilians" then that is simply too bad. After all - and let's be honest here - those civilians SHOULDN'T HAVE EVER BEEN ALLOWED IN THERE. The IDF helped those squatters make this mess in the first place, and so the IDF can bloody-well help take the trash out.
No wrestling here, just leave the settlers to survive as they can-they'll do a better job than the IDF...there won't be any stinkin' politics (they don' need no stinkin' badges), just if you "do" me, I'll do you 10 times worse-THAT language the arabs understand. The other leftist political crap the arabs just love-they eat up on it because it's their turf and the Israeli leadership is too stupid to accept it.
see they are panicking. 1o downing street and US downing army and fake jews are trying to create war right yisrael? the beast is hungry again.
After decades of promoting, encouraging, and protecting Settler criminality, the IDF and Shin Bet have to consider restraining them. This must be hard. All those decades of nurturing criminals and now you might have to bust them.
oh my, Israel has built itself a very dangerous mixture of religion and policy, this will not end good.
As an outsider, it's really none of my business, but, for what it is worth, I think it better that when there is disagreement, decisions be made by the elected government rather than any faction in a country.
senselessly where neither side fights for freedom as they are trying to sell lies in the news. and they say they are protecting britain of terrorist attacks while they destroy their own city and lie and brainwash their own soldiers to fight a blind fight? same for the US and israel. this is so sad. how can those criminals be so mentally sick. and upon those innocent blinded brainwashed deaths they are striking oil deals. there is really no words to explain that miserable story. how can they even live and sleep? can you explain me that?