THE FOGG OF WAR 

Russians Approve Terrorist Attack Plan on NPP, Explosives Found Near Four Power Units, Ukraine’s Intel Chief Says

OR I LEFT MY FALSE FLAG AT HOME

The situation has never been as serious as it is now, Budanov said. The world’s attention to the existing Russian threat at the Zaporizhzhia NPP is still insufficient, Zelensky added.

by Kyiv Post | June 26, 2023, 1:35 pm

A view of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on June 15, 2023. 

Olga MALTSEVA / AFP

The head of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR), General Kyrylo Budanov, warned again that Russia has plans prepared for a terrorist attack on Zaporizhzhia NNP (ZNPP) in an interview with The New Statesman on June 25. According to him, Russian forces have placed equipment with explosives near four of the six power units.

“The plan for a terrorist attack on the ZNPP is fully drafted and approved. They can use technical means to accelerate the catastrophe,” Budanov said.

“The situation has never been as serious as it is now,” he stressed.

According to him, the order to commit a terrorist attack on the ZNPP could be triggered by the defeat of the Russian occupation forces on the left bank of the Dnipro River. He says that Russia may see their creation of a nuclear disaster zone as a way of halting Ukraine’s forces and preventing attacks on Russian positions.


There is also a risk that Moscow may attack the ZNPP with a radiation leak as a “preventive measure” to stop a major push in Ukraine’s summer offensive before it begins, thereby freezing the front line in its current location.

On June 25, following Budanov’s statements, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a series of international conversations with US president Joe Biden, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, and Polish president Andrzej Duda.

Zelensky said that he had informed his partners that the occupiers had mined the Zaporizhzhia NPP.

Ukrainian Forces Seize Ground Including an Area Occupied by Russia Since 2014

Ukrainian troops take control new parts of Russian-controlled territory as Kyiv’s infantry attacks progress field-by-field deeper into Kremlin’s defenses.

“I told them [international partners] about the information we have, our intelligence, about the Russian scenario with the mining of Zaporizhzhia NPP, which has been approved for terrorists,” the president said.

The president noted that the world must take steps to prevent a nuclear disaster.

“Just as the [world’s] reaction to the Russian explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and the deliberate attempt of Russian terrorists to hit the dam of another reservoir in Kryvyi Rih was insufficient.

“We must take very concrete steps together in the world to prevent any radiation incidents,” Zelensky said.

German Prosecutors Admit to Tapping Climate Activists' Phones


TEHRAN (FNA)- The wiretapping was ordered as part of an investigation over suspicions that members of the group were "forming or supporting a criminal organisation", a spokesman for the Munich public prosecution's office said.

The Last Generation, known for gluing themselves to roads to draw attention to the climate crisis, condemned the eavesdropping, calling it "absurd", AFP reported.

Conversations between members of the group and journalists making media enquiries were among the calls monitored, the prosecutors' spokesman said.

While the journalists themselves were not targeted, they "were affected by the measures due to calls made via the monitored telephone numbers", he said.

The Sueddeutsche newspaper first revealed the wiretapping on Saturday, reporting that the surveillance had begun last October. The surveillance included monitoring emails, voice mail accounts and logging the GPS data of mobile phones, the paper reported.

Reacting to the news, The Last Generation group wrote on Twitter, "We protest showing our names and faces, publish our plans, accept the legal consequences."

"Nevertheless, the Bavarian LKA (police) logged telephone calls, emails and movement profiles. Even our press phone was monitored. That is absurd!" the group said.

It was unclear whether the surveillance was still ongoing, the group added.

Lars Castellucci, an MP from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ruling Social Democrats (SPD), said the wiretapping "raises questions about proportionality".

Dietmar Bartsch, parliamentary leader of the far-left Linke opposition party, called the surveillance "completely inappropriate".

As part of a criminal investigation, police raided the homes of several Last Generation activists in May and also seized two bank accounts.

The activists have nevertheless vowed to continue their protests.

The group, whose direct action has delayed flights and blocked road traffic, has divided public opinion with its tactics.

Earlier this month, Last Generation protesters spray-painted a private jet orange, several activists gluing themselves to the plane and the tarmac.

What’s driving some Somali mothers to poison their babies

The worst drought in four decades, devastating floods and more than 30 years of conflict have forced families to engage in inhumane and unthinkable acts.

By Fathi Mohamed Ahmed

Special to the Star
Sun., June 25, 2023


MOGADISHU, Somalia—Makka Madeey Ibrahim used to have a comfortable life with her husband and seven children on a farm in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region.

Now she poisons her baby with detergent in order to feed her family.

Somalia has been wracked by the worst drought in four decades, devastating floods and more than 30 years of conflict. This year has set a record for displacements, with more than a million people fleeing their homes in just 130 days. It brings the total number of internally displaced people to nearly four million, which is close to a quarter of the country’s population.

In the face of such punishing conditions, some of the desperate have engaged in inhumane, unthinkable acts.

Like Ibrahim and her family, most of the displaced live in makeshift camps on the outskirts of Somalia’s biggest cities.

After years of recurrent droughts killed off Ibrahim’s herd of goats and dried up the once fertile fields where she grew fruit and vegetables, the family abandoned their ruined farm and moved to a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.

Despite arriving in Mogadishu with nothing but a sick husband and her young children, there was no humanitarian assistance available for Ibrahim and her family. She hustled for work washing other people’s clothes but the few dollars she earned were not enough.

This was when she decided to force-feed her 11-month-old daughter with a mixture of washing powder and salty water. This led to explosive diarrhea leaving the child dehydrated and weak.

Ibrahim then took her sick baby to as many mother and child health centres as she could. Each one gave her high-energy biscuits and porridge to help revive her daughter.

She did not give this food to her child. She sold it in the local market, then used the money to buy food and other essentials for the whole family.

“I know this is not a good thing to do, but I have no other way of feeding my family,” said Ibrahim. “My husband is too ill to look for work and my children are always hungry.”

Poisoning her daughter and taking her to as many clinics as possible so she can obtain the maximum amount of free food has become Ibrahim’s only way of making an income. Sometimes the clinics give her money, too.

“I feed my baby detergent and salty water as often as I can because that is my livelihood,” she said. “The health workers at the clinics say she needs long-term care because the frequent bouts of diarrhea have made her malnourished. But I have no other choice.”

There have been reports of dozens of such cases within camps for the internally displaced, with an increasing number emerging as word of the practice spread.

Arfon Aden Ali and her family were also forced by drought to abandon their home in Lower Shabelle and move to a camp outside Mogadishu. Like Ibrahim, Ali force-fed her daughter with detergent.

Three months ago, her daughter died shortly after swallowing the mixture.

“My life is a nightmare now. I am full of remorse,” said Ali, who has suffered deep bouts of guilt and depression since the death of her child.

“I made this poisonous drink with my own hands and gave it to my daughter. All I wanted was to feed my family. I will never forget what I did to my daughter. I will never forgive myself.”

Ali said that when she arrived at the camp, other mothers told her how they made children sick with detergent. There were no jobs in the camp and no humanitarian assistance. Ali said that in her mind poisoning a child to feed the family was the only option.

Health workers must educate themselves about the growing problem of deliberate poisoning of children, said Ifrah Ahmed, acting chair of the Women’s Leadership Network at the Ministry of Women and Human Rights.

“Those who work in community health centres should monitor closely the condition of the children to make sure they distinguish the cases where they have been poisoned from those when they are naturally unwell,” she said.

Dr. Jibril Malin, a Mogadishu-based pediatrician, said feeding babies and children detergent mixed with salty water can lead to serious long-term health problems as well as diarrhea and vomiting.

“The cleaning powder contains dangerous chemicals,” he said. “They can erode the intestines and stomach lining, leading to the collapse of the digestive system.

“Salty water will bloat the child,” he added. “When mixed with detergent, it leads to vomiting and acute diarrhea. A child can succumb to these complications.”

There is a lack of community awareness.

“Mothers who do this to their children do not know about the life-threatening dangers,” said Nasteha Salad Omar, a health worker.

“More needs to be done to inform the community,” she said. “If the root causes are not addressed, children‘s lives will continue to be endangered because women will do anything to feed their families.”


As Somalia has been in a state of conflict for more than three decades, government is weak, many of its institutions destroyed. Local and international aid organizations struggle to reach those in need due to insecurity.

This leaves families such as Ibrahim’s and Ali’s resorting to desperate measures.

Displaced people have been selling off their young daughters for marriage and sending their young children out to work or leaving them to look after their siblings while they search for food.

Others rent their children to beggars who take them out in the streets all day and share their takings with the child’s parents.

Some children are recruited by armed groups.

A September 2022 study by the United Nations refugee agency found that nearly 20 per cent of children who worked were engaged in sexual transactions, while others worked in factories or as porters, domestic servants or street vendors.

According to the United Nations, about two-and-a-half million school-aged children in Somalia have been affected by the current drought, with about 30 per cent of them at risk of not returning to class.

With global powers focusing on other crises, especially the war in Ukraine, countries like Somalia get left behind. During Somalia’s devastating drought of 2022, 50 aid agencies made a desperate appeal after only two per cent of an emergency appeal to donor nations was funded.

Unless urgent steps are taken to increase international assistance, reduce the impact of climate change and bring greater stability to Somalia, the fear is that parents like Ibrahim and Ali will decide they have no choice but to put their babies’ lives at risk in order to keep their families alive.

Fathi Mohamed Ahmed, is chief editor of Bilan, Somalia’s first all-women media house, which is supported by UNDP and hosted by Dalsan Media Group in Mogadishu.

Secretary-General Remarks At The Paris Summit On A New Global Financing Pact

Monday, 26 June 2023
Article: United Nations

Mr. President,Madame
Prime Minister,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear experts and civil society members, Excellencies,

Dear Emmanuel Macron, thank you for organizing this important summit, amidst an international context fraught with challenges.

and thank you, dear Mia Mottley, for the efforts undertaken within the framework of the Bridgetown Initiative.

This provides a remarkable foundation to address the difficulties faced by numerous developing countries.

Because doing nothing is not an option.

The international financial system is in Crisis.

Halfway to the 2030 deadline, the Sustainable Development Goals are drifting further away by the day.

Even the most fundamental goals on hunger and poverty have gone into reverse after decades of Progress.

Yes, in 2023, more than 750 million people do not have enough to eat.

And tens of millions more are teetering on the verge of extreme poverty.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have exacerbated the situation.

While wealthy countries could print money to revive their savings,

Developing countries could not do likewise and are grappling with exorbitant borrowing costs – up to eight times higher than those of developed countries.

Many leaders face an agonizing choice: servicing their debt or meeting the needs of their Populations.

Many African countries now spend more on debt repayments than on healthcare.

With terrible consequences for entire generations.

Today, 52 countries are in default or dangerously close to it.

This includes the majority of least developed countries.

As well as the majority of the 50 countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Dozens of other nations are at risk of joining them.

This situation is untenable.

It is clear that the international Financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries.

The reason is simple, like Mia Mottley just told us, this architecture was built in the aftermath of World War II.

It essentially reflects, even with some changes, the political and economic power dynamics of that Time.

Consider this: over three-quarters of today's countries were not present at the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions—the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

And the situation is no better for the United Nations and the Security Council, particularly.

Nearly 80 years later, the global Financial Architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and unjust.

It is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the 21st century world:

A multipolar world characterized by deeply integrated economies and financial markets.

But also marked by geopolitical tensions and growing systemic risks.

International financial institutions are now too small and limited to fulfill their mandate and serve everyone, especially the most vulnerable countries.

For example, the World Bank's paid-in capital as a percentage of global GDP is now less than a fifth of what it was in 1960 - even though the challenges are far greater.

Even worse, the global financial system perpetuates and even exacerbates inequalities.

In 2021, and we applaud this decision, the International Monetary Fund allocated over $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights.

European Union countries, including my own, received $160 billion.

African Countries: 34.

In other words, European citizens received on average nearly 13 times more than African citizens.

This was all done by the rules.

Goal let us acknowledge: these rules have become profoundly immoral.

A financial architecture which does not represent today's world is at risk of leading to its own fragmentation in a world where geopolitics is in itself a factor for fragmentation.

Excellencies, Ladies and Ladies Gentlemen

There will be no serious solution to this crisis without serious reforms.

I have called for a new Bretton Woods moment -- a moment for governments to come together, re-examine and re-configure the global financial architecture for the 21stcentury.

And earlier this month, as part of our preparations for the Summit of the Future, I put forward a Policy Brief – a detailed Blueprint for a redesigned Global Financial Architecture capable of serving as a safety net for all countries.

I have no illusions. This is a question of power and political will, and change will not happen Overnight.

But as we work for the deep reforms that are needed, we can take urgent action today to meet the urgent needs of developing and emerging savings.

That is why I have proposed an SDG Stimulus of $500 billion US dollars per year for investments in sustainable development and climate action.

It includes concrete steps global leaders can take right now.

They can establish a really effective and time effective debt relief mechanism that supports payment suspensions, longer lending terms and lower rates, including for middle income countries with particular vulnerabilities, namely in relation to climate.

They can scale up development and climate finance by increasing the capital base and changing the business model of Multilateral Development Banks, and allowing in a much stronger coordination to transfor their approach to risk, without risking the AAA [rating] and a lot could be said about the role played by [ratings] agencies that are, in my opinion, deeply biased and have contributed to many of the crises we have faced, and, simultaneously, transforming their approach to risk to massively leverage private finance at affordable cost to developing countries.

And lot has been said today about the need for more guarantees.

World leaders can expand contingency financing to countries in need, by rechannelling, in broader scale, unused Special Drawing Rights, and by using other innovative mechanisms to increase global liquidity.

The African Development Bank initiative to re-channel SDRs to Multilateral Development Banks could multiply their impact by five.

This example should be expanded.

Global leaders can put in place a mechanism to issue SDRs automatically in times of crisis and distribute them according to need.

They can put a price on carbon and end fossil fuel subsidies and repurpose them towards more sustainable and productive uses.

And the list of things we can do now goes on and on.

The two next days will be useful to take things forward.

Taken together, these steps would help to beat poverty and hunger, uplift developing and emerging economies, and support investments in health, education and climate action.

We don’t have to wait for root and branch reform of the international financial architecture.

We can take steps right now – and take a giant leap towards global justice.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I am fully aware of the challenges and headwinds we face.

Power dynamics and constraints on global cooperation in today’s world make problems more difficult to solve.

But solutions are not impossible. And we can start now.

Your discussions can yield meaningful results for people in need.

I urge you to make this Meeting not just a cri du cœur for change, but a cri de War – A Rallying Cry for Urgent Action.

We are at a moment of truth and reckoning.

Together, we can make it a moment of hope.

Thank you.

© Scoop Media

 

Smotrich Rushes to Justify Israeli Terrorists’ Attacks on Palestinian Citizens

M.S | DOP - 26 June, 2023

In its report on Sunday, June 25, 2023, the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz” stated that the Israeli occupation government and army are directly responsible for the terrorist Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Moreover, extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rushed to defend them.

Smotrich rejected the comparison between what he called “criminal Arab terrorism” and “civilian response operations” carried out by extremist settlers, considering this comparison “rejected morally, and dangerous from a practical point of view.”

In many tweets he wrote last night on his Twitter account, Smotrich indirectly justified the Israeli settlers’ attack on the Palestinian village of “Umm Safa” yesterday, claiming that some Palestinian villagers participated in attacks against settlers.

Smotrich, who is responsible for the Israeli settlement in the West Bank in the Israeli “Ministry of Defense”, attacked calls for administrative detention against leaders of Israeli terrorist organizations responsible for directing and leading the attacks on Palestinian towns acoss the West Bank during the past four days.

Although Smotrich called on the settlers to “refrain from transgressing the law,” he justified his call by saying that this behavior “harms settlements,” and he did not reject the attacks on the Palestinians.

He urged to set up Israeli military checkpoints at the entrances to Palestinian villages and to search Palestinian citizens entering and leaving them.

In a report published by the Haaretz newspaper today, Sunday, Noa Landau, political commentator for the newspaper, indicated that it was proven that the Israeli occupation army allowed the settlers to carry out the brutal attacks in the town of Hawara three months ago, and did not try to confront them.

Landau stressed that the successive Israeli governments and the Israeli occupation army have always been at the service of the extremist settlers against the defenseless Palestinian people.

Israeli Occupation Accused of Poisoning Palestinian Land to Build Illegal Settlements

M.Y | DOP - 25 June, 2023

A new report by Haaretz has revealed that the Israeli occupation used a toxic chemical to destroy the crops of Palestinian farmers in the West Bank in order to dispossess them of their land and make way for a Jewish settlement in the 1970s.

The report, based on newly declassified documents, shows that the Israeli occupation army, the Jewish Agency and the Custodian of Absentee Property collaborated in a plan to spray a lethal substance on the fields of Aqraba, a Palestinian village near Nablus, using a crop duster plane.

The documents show that the spraying was part of a larger scheme to confiscate 83% of Aqraba’s lands under the pretext of declaring them a military training zone. The ultimate goal was to establish Gitit, an illegal settlement that still exists today.

The report exposes the role of Golda Meir’s government in orchestrating the poisoning operation, which took place between 1972 and 1974. Meir was the Israeli prime minister at the time and is often portrayed as a moderate leader who sought peace with the Palestinians.

The poisoning had devastating effects on the Palestinian farmers and their animals, who suffered from stomach poisoning and other health problems. Some of them were forced to leave their land and became refugees.

The report also sheds light on the systematic nature of the Israeli policies and practices of forcible displacement and dispossession of Palestinians throughout its history, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.

The report has sparked outrage among Palestinian activists and human rights groups, who have called for accountability and justice for the victims of the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime.

Berlin slams ongoing settler violence in West Bank

Settler assaults on hundreds of Palestinians are 'beyond disturbing and there is nothing to justify these attacks,' says Foreign Ministry spokesman

Oliver Towfigh Nia |26.06.2023 

Jewish settlers set fire to Palestinian homes and vehicles Ramallah, West Bank on June 21, 2023

 ( Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency )

BERLIN (AA) - Germany on Monday condemned the escalating settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“Clearly the federal government naturally condemns any form of violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner told a press briefing in Berlin.

Israeli settlers’ actions in Palestinian communities over the weekend where hundreds of Palestinians were injured as well as the images of burning homes and cars are “beyond disturbing, and there is nothing to justify these attacks,” he added.

Wagner urged the Israeli government to crack down on the settler violence.

“Of course, we expect the Israeli authorities to take resolute action against the … perpetrators,” he said.

“It is clear that, under international law, Israel, as the occupying power, has an explicit duty to maintain public security and order in the occupied territories,” Wagner added.

Settlement expansion has long been a thorny issue in German-Israel relations, as Berlin sees it as a major obstacle to a potential two-state solution.

The UN considers Israeli settlement activity illegal and says it undermines the internationally agreed two-state solution framework.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank in recent months amid repeated deadly Israeli raids into Palestinian towns.

Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of this year, according to the Health Ministry. At least 25 Israelis have also been killed in separate attacks during the same period.​​​​​​​

Israel approved plans to build over 12,000 settlement units in the first half of 2023

Ibrahim Husseini
Jerusalem
26 June, 2023

In 1972, the Israeli military used a crop duster to spray toxic chemicals on Palestinian land to deter farmers from the village of Aqraba from cultivating their fields. Fifty-six years later, the settlement movement is still as fierce.


Israel has approved plans for over 12,000 settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territories in the first half of 2023. [Getty]

New research by the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University and reported by Ha'aretz revealed the extreme lengths the Israeli government took to dispossess Palestinians of their land to build settlements.

Settlement construction in the occupied West Bank is a determined policy of successive Israeli governments, whether from the right, centre or left. The settlement construction began in earnest in September 1967, near al-Khalil (Hebron), mere months after the occupation by the Israeli army.

In 1972, the Israeli military used a crop duster to spray toxic chemicals to render Palestinian land sterile to deter farmers from the village of Aqraba from cultivating their fields. The drastic measure came after the Israeli military made several attempts to discourage farmers from growing crops. First, they told the village farmers their land would be declared a military training zone. When that didn't work, the Israeli army sabotaged agricultural tools and used vehicles to destroy crops.

One file dating to January 1972, when the left-leaning labour party ruled Israel, revealed that the Israeli army's central command ordered one of its brigades to ensure that "no land is cultivated," and to destroy existing crops.

Fifty-six years later, the settlement movement is still as fierce. Over half a million Jewish settlers live illegally in the occupied West Bank, with both open and tacit government support.

Following the shooting attack by two Palestinian armed men, which killed four Israeli settlers, the Israeli government announced plans to build one thousand settlement units in the illegal settlement of Eli. In addition, the Israeli PM has decided to legalise the Evyatar outpost and not evacuate it. It all comes after the civil administration disclosed details about the advancement of 4,799 units throughout the occupied West Bank, including the retroactive legalisation of an additional outpost in the Eli settlement area known as Palgei Maim.

In February, the Israeli army's civil administration approved plans for 7,349 housing units. According to Peace Now, Israel has, in the first half of 2023, advanced 12,149 through the planning procedure. "For comparison, in the entire year of 2022, Israel approved 4,427 housing units", Peace Now recently reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to "strengthen settlements" and has expressed no interest in reviving peace talks, moribund since 2014.

To give a sense of the present mood in the ruling coalition, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir recently urged settlers to run "to the hilltops" to build more outposts.

In response, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu boasted at a cabinet meeting about his record of doubling settlements in "Judea and Samaria"; the term Israelis refers to the occupied Palestinian territories.

Nevertheless, the Israeli PM quickly distanced himself from Ben-Gvir's remarks but said simultaneously that "the proper response to terrorism is to fight the terrorists and deepen our roots in our country".

"Calls to grab land illegally and actions of grabbing land illegally are unacceptable to me", he added.

In reality, there is no disagreement between the Israeli PM and his minister over settlements in the occupied territories, only the tactics.

Israeli court rules to evict elderly Palestinian couple

MENA

Ibrahim Husseini

US-brokered peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip collapsed in 2014. Most countries and international law deem any settlements Israel built on land seized in the 1967 war illegal.

Diplomats from more than 20 missions, including the European Union and the United States, visited Turmus Ayya on Friday, condemning settlers' attack on the village.

At least 176 Palestinians, 25 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian have been killed since the start of the year.

The tally compiled from official sources includes combatants, civilians, and, on the Israeli side, three members of the 1948 Palestinian community.

‘Settler terrorism’: IDF, Shin Bet condemn revenge rampages in West Bank

Far-right ministers lashed out at the army and intelligence agency for calling the settler attacks terror, with one minister comparing them to the notorious Russian Wagner Group.

By JOTAM CONFINOJune 26, 2023,

Al Laban Al Sharkiyeh, Palestine. 21st June, 2023. View of a destroyed shop by Jewish settlers during an attack on the town of Al-Laban al-Sharkiyeh, in the northern West Bank. Jewish settlers launched an attack on the Palestinian town Al-Laban al-Sharkiyeh, burning farms, throwing stones at houses, and setting fire to dozens of cars and Palestinian property. Credit: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News

The Israeli army and Shin Bet intelligence agency have condemned dozens of settler attacks against Palestinian cars, homes, and fields in the West Bank the past week, referring to it as “nationalist terrorism.”

“In recent days, violent attacks have been carried out by Israelis in Judea and Samaria against innocent Palestinians. These attacks contradict every moral and Jewish value; they constitute, in every way, nationalist terrorism, and we are obliged to fight them,” joint statement by IDF chief Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai read.

“Israel’s security forces are operating against those rioters, risking the lives of IDF soldiers, Israel Police officers and ISA (Shin Bet) personnel. This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the State of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism. It also diverts the security forces from their main mission of operating against Palestinian terrorism,” the statement added.

The security echelon also warned that it would conduct an increased number of arrests, “including administrative arrests of the rioters who act in a violent and extreme manner inside the Palestinian towns” while calling on settlement leaders to denounce the continued attacks.

Workers clean the house of Palestinian-American Raed Suleiman from Chicago, that was torched by a mob of Israeli settlers in Turmus Ayya, West Bank, on Friday, June 23, 2023. Hundreds of masked and armed Israeli settlers rampaged the peaceful village of Turmus Ayya on Wednesday, where they burned cars and homes of Palestinians in a revenge attack after four Israelis were shot by Palestinian gunmen. Photo by Debbie Hill/ Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

The settler revenge rampage began Tuesday evening last week, following a terror attack committed by two Hamas members in at a restaurant and gas station near the settlement of Eli in the West Bank, where four Israelis were killed.

Since then, hundreds of settlers have been involved in attacks on dozens of Palestinian towns and villages every day, burning homes, cars, and fields, as well as physically attacking innocent Palestinians.

The IDF admitted that it failed to prevent the attacks from taking place. But the security echelon’s description of the attacks as “terror” was met with harsh criticism by far-right ministers and coalition lawmakers.

“They issued a message about Jewish nationalist terrorism. Who do you think you are? The Wagner Group? Who are you to issue such a message under the government’s nose? Are they going to preach to us?” said National Missions Minister, Orit Strock, from the Religious Zionism party, referring to the Russian paramilitary organisation.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid immediately condemned Strock for her comments, saying: “A minister in Israel who compares the army chief of staff, the police commissioner and the head of the Shin Bet to rebel mercenaries is not worthy and cannot sit in the Israeli government.”

But Strock was just one of many in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition who attacked the IDF and Shin Bet for describing the settler attacks as terror.

Finance Minister and leader of Religious Zionism, Betzalel Smotrich, claimed that the “attempt to create an equivalency between murderous Arab terror and (Israeli) civilian counter-actions, however serious they may be, is morally wrong and dangerous on a practical level.”

Likud lawmaker, Danny Danon, also issued a statement criticising the security establishment, saying “serious violence of a handful of settlers does not come close to the murderous Palestinian terrorism.”

It has been widely documented by human rights groups and eyewitnesses in the West Bank that it wasn’t just a handful of settlers, but nearly 300 who took part in one of the largest attacks agains the Palestinian town of Turmus Ayya.

Why is Israel failing to stop Jewish attacks on Palestinians? - analysis

The IDF does not even want this mission and would rather the police deal with it; in the IDF’s first reaction to Huwara, it tried to divert blame to the police.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
JPOST
Updated: JUNE 25, 2023 20:48

A Palestinian man runs near a burning object, after an attack by Israeli settlers, near Ramallah, in the West Bank, June 21, 2023
(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMAD TOROKMAN)

At this point, there have been dozens of violent attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinians, not counting the massive ones in Huwara and Turmus Ayya – why have Israeli security forces failed to prevent them?

In February, when settlers torched homes in the northern West Bank town of Huwara, killing one, the IDF learned the lesson of quick troop deployment. Yet overall, Israel’s security forces, especially in the last week, have failed to stop Jewish revenge attacks against Palestinians.

Why? The IDF will tell you that the answer is resources. It does not have enough troops to prevent all of the Palestinian terror attacks against Jews (see the increase in terror in recent weeks), so it certainly does not have enough troops for what it sees as a secondary mission: preventing Jewish terror.

That answer is probably part of the problem. The IDF’s main objective is to win wars against foreign enemies, not to stop its citizens from committing revenge violence.

In other words, the IDF does not even want this mission and would rather the police deal with it; in the IDF’s first reaction to Huwara, it tried to divert blame to the police.

SETTLERS TROOPS FRATERNISE

Israeli soldiers and settlers at the entrance to the West Bank village of Turmus Aiya, 

June 21, 2023 

(credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Only later on did the IDF take responsibility and recognize that only it has enough forces sufficient to be regularly deployed deep into West Bank areas where these attacks are occurring.

Cases where Shin Bet have taken action

Over the years, the Shin Bet has ramped up efforts to catch Jewish terrorists after specific attacks, like the murder of Muhammad Aby Khadir in 2014 or the murders of the Palestinian Dawabshe family in Duma in 2015.

In those cases, the Shin Bet and IDF used administrative detention on a small number of Jews and even enhanced interrogation techniques. But these tend to be short-term investigations, to find one or two murderers after someone has been killed. These are not examples where Israel succeeded in preventing hundreds of settlers from ransacking and setting fire en-masse to a Palestinian town, like what happened in Turmus Ayya on Wednesday.

The processes that have led to these failures date back years in terms of a culture of passivity when it comes to addressing Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians.

To the extent that they are worse today, some of it could relate to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir being in power and other government officials creating an atmosphere in which border policemen, and even some IDF troops beyond his direct sphere of influence, feel that there are some top Israeli leaders who do not want them to clamp down too hard on Jewish violence.

Last November, before the new government was formed, but when it was already known that the current coalition was on its way to power, an IDF soldier beat up a left-wing activist in Hebron and said that Ben-Gvir would “bring order” when he came into power.

Subsequently, there has been an increase in incidents of soldiers beating Palestinians and even groups of soldiers protesting when some of their fellow soldiers were disciplined or prosecuted for carrying out such beatings.

What the IDF could do is exhibit the same creativity it does when it fights Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah.

Instead of complaining that it places forces in one town to protect Palestinians from a Jewish revenge attack, and doing nothing when the revenge attackers maneuver around them, it could be anticipating how to stop highly motivated revenge attackers from succeeding at all.

The IDF does not sit back and wait for Hamas, Iran, or Hezbollah to attack with a drone or sea commandos. It does not throw up its hands and give up on attacking underground Iranian nuclear facilities because it lacks a giant bunker-buster bomb.

Rather, it brainstorms about how these groups might try to surprise them and places defenses in place ahead of time.

If it cannot attack Iranian underground facilities with one big bomb, it comes up with creative ways to use multiple bombs, even if that is not the conventional way they are used.

After Huwara, the IDF had failed, but it had an excuse. Now, Israeli security forces have had four months to plan and anticipate how creative revenge attacks might play out.

In addition to the moral considerations, if Israel’s security forces do not reach a more proactive plan soon for protecting Palestinians, the Jewish state’s legitimacy could suffer in new and unprecedented ways which could have far-reaching consequences on other critical diplomatic and security issues.