A report by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that one of the main reasons leading to the escalation of resistance in the occupied West Bank is the plans and provocations of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich.
The report quoted senior Israeli army officers accusing the two extremist ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “trying to ignite a war of Gog and Magog,” also pointing to their attempts to change the status quo in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which would increase the difficulties facing the occupation army and prompt some senior officers to consider resigning.
The newspaper’s military analyst, Ron Ben-Yishai, spoke about the role of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad in turning the West Bank into an active battlefield against the occupation forces.
While Ben-Yishai spoke about what he described as “the successes of the Israeli army through the attack on a number of refugee camps in the West Bank,” he added that “these successes still do not guarantee that there will not be a major fire that may still be ahead of us, as a security source says.”
He added that the occupation army is trying to prevent the population in the West Bank from joining the confrontation, which would turn the current wave into a full-fledged uprising, by allowing the population the greatest possible freedom of movement and livelihood, he claimed.
Israeli military sources were quoted as saying that most young Palestinians in the West Bank are now unemployed because they cannot work in Israel, claiming that this is one of the things that leads to their increased involvement in the resistance, and which raises fears of mass attacks by Palestinians on the Israeli settlements surrounding them.
The military analyst quoted the central command of the occupation forces in the West Bank, led by Major General Avi Blot and the commander of the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) Brigade, Yaki Dolev, as saying, “We are doing our utmost through offensive activity and excellent intelligence to confront the Palestinian attacks, but until the Jordanian border is properly closed, and as long as the extremist elements among the settlers continue to attack and riot in Palestinian communities, the region will not calm down.”
Fear of a third uprising
Ben-Yishai stressed that senior Israeli officers say that the political echelon, especially Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, is the direct cause of the escalation in the West Bank, noting that “the Israeli army is refraining from carrying out the arrests requested by the Shin Bet throughout Judea and Samaria, simply because it does not have enough detention facilities that the Minister of National Security and his ministry were supposed to provide.”
The military analyst said that the Israeli police are not doing their job to contain the settlers, which is why the Israeli army is intervening and acting as a civilian police force. A senior officer was quoted as saying, “This situation cannot continue. We are on the verge of a major explosion. The problem is that if a major intifada breaks out in Judea and Samaria, the IDF will have to invest a lot of forces that it does not have there.”
He added, “Ben Gvir’s behavior in storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque and encouraging Jewish prayer there is causing great anger that is likely to ignite fire not only in the West Bank, but in the entire Arab world.”
Ben-Yishai pointed to a security discussion held by Netanyahu last Thursday – with the participation of the negotiating team and senior defense officials – which concluded that the Israeli army would have to carry out a full reserve mobilization in order to be able to fight simultaneously at high intensity on all fronts.
Senior Israeli officers accused the Israeli leadership, saying that “it is trying to ignite a war of Gog and Magog, especially Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, as they believe that by escalating against the Palestinians, they will cause their expulsion from Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and then it will be possible to achieve the vision of Greater Israel under exclusive Jewish control,” describing this thinking as “a recipe for disaster.”
frustration in the army
The military analyst touched on the frustration prevailing in the senior leadership of the Israeli army, which he said “is summed up in a statement I heard this week: We have good successes in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and even in our air activity in the north, but these successes on the systemic level are not being translated by the political level into strategic achievements, because the necessary decisions are simply not being made.”
He explained that “there is no decision on an alternative civilian administration to the Hamas administration in Gaza, there is no decision on when and how we will deal with Hezbollah in the north, and we are still not even thinking about how to deal with Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, alongside the Americans.”
He added that the frustration of senior officers over the lack of decisions being made in all areas of the political level is leading many senior officers these days to consider whether they should “put the keys on the table and step aside.”
He concluded by saying, “It is true that a large part of these senior officers feel the need to retire also because of their role in the failures of October 7 (the Al-Aqsa Flood), but they see that the sudden withdrawal of some of them or senior officials, including Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, will also lead to the sabotage of the war effort and the plans that are about to be implemented, and will increase the internal division and discord among the people and worsen our security situation.”
He added that at least the senior members of the General Staff intend to stay, but they believe that “achieving victory is linked to the political leadership taking decisions that enable the army to take the initiative and reach a strategic decision, at least with regard to the Gaza Strip and the Lebanese arena.”