This Editor’s Note was sent out earlier on Wednesday in ToI’s weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel Community. To receive these Editor’s Notes as they’re released, join the ToI Community here.
As of early Wednesday, rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel had halted, and a tense ceasefire had taken effect. This after a day of cross-border conflict on Tuesday, during which over 100 projectiles were fired at Israel, sparked by the death in Israeli custody after an 86-day hunger strike of Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad member who was facing prosecution for terrorist activities.
It is less than a month since the last rocket assault from the Hamas-run Strip, which followed violent clashes on the Temple Mount, including the entry of Israeli security forces into Al-Aqsa Mosque to confront what the police described as “agitators” who had barricaded themselves inside with fireworks, clubs and stones.
And even if this latest fragile ceasefire holds, there can be little doubt that the next round of conflict between Israel and the Iranian-backed Gaza terror groups that openly seek our country’s demise is only a matter of time, and not very much time at that.
While some members of the coalition grandly advocate “crushing” responses to the rocket attacks, and some on the far-right, including ministers, want to send the IDF to reconquer Gaza 18 years after the Israel’s “disengagement,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown no inclination to retake control over the 2 million Palestinians of the Strip and has generally sought to avoid escalation where possible.
When not in jail, Adnan lived in the Jenin area, and the security establishment will have been well aware of the potential for the violence sparked by his death expanding beyond Gaza and into the West Bank.
More generally, Israel is acutely conscious of Iran’s efforts to build up its capacity to harm Israel on multiple fronts simultaneously, with stepped-up support for terror groups in Gaza, southern Lebanon, and elsewhere. The Al-Aqsa clashes last month prompted not only rocket fire from Gaza but also the heaviest barrage of rockets from Lebanon since 2006, a rocket attack from Syria, a suspected Iranian drone launch from Syria too, and deadly terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank.
In a briefing to reporters just two weeks ago, indeed, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that the era of “limited conflicts” was ending and Israel was “facing a new security era in which there may be a real threat to all arenas at the same time.”
“We operated for years under the assumption that limited conflicts could be managed, but that is a phenomenon that is disappearing,” said Gallant.
He named Iran as the key “driving force” behind this multifront threat, specifying that as the regime moves “closer than ever” to a nuclear weapons capability, it is transferring “resources, ideology, knowledge, and training” to its anti-Israel proxies, including by funding Hezbollah in Lebanon to the tune of $700 million a year, Hamas in Gaza with some $100 million, and tens of millions more to Islamic Jihad.
That heightened challenge, in turn, necessitates a heightened focus on maximizing Israel’s offensive and defensive capabilities, and seeking to initiate action at a time and place and scale of our choice, rather than responding to our enemies’ provocations.
Israel can never afford to go blundering into conflict without the clearest possible strategic goals, least of all in the current climate, facing an emboldened Iran.
Manifestly, too, it cannot allow itself to be distracted or debilitated from within — as has been the case these past four months as the coalition has focused overwhelming attention, to the detriment of just about every other aspect of governance, on its efforts to neuter the judicial system. (The death of a hunger-striking security prisoner is no common occurrence. Did the minister of national security pay any attention to Adnan’s imminent demise, and had the security cabinet prepared to handle the consequences of his ostensible martyrdom?)
The coalition’s obsessive focus on drastically weakening the checks and balances of Israeli democracy has prompted arguably unprecedented internal dissent, with consequences so damaging to our security needs as to prompt a public warning from Gallant and an eventual, reluctant, temporary halt to the judicial overhaul legislation by Netanyahu.
Israel’s enemies, and most especially Iran, are constantly probing for weakness in their relentless bid to weaken and ultimately destroy the country. Tuesday’s flareup is just one more reminder of the toxic neighborhood in which we live, and the constant immediacy of the dangers.
Against all odds, Israel has not merely kept its enemies at bay for three-quarters of a century but has built a vibrant, advanced and astoundingly resilient nation. That resilience is crucial to our very existence. Hence the imperative to maintain broad consensus as regards the core principles and values of our country.
In this treacherous region, Israel’s internal cohesion is not a luxury or an ideal. It is a central element in our capacity to resist our enemies, survive and flourish.
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