A number of former generals in the Israeli army and intelligence are criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ignoring warnings from the security establishment concerning the dangers of escalations in the West Bank.
The generals pointed out that Netanyahu lightly treated the warnings that the stalemate in the peace process would “blow up” in Israel’s face.
In this regard, MP Omer Barlev asserted that the government ignored warnings of Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot when he said in August that the absence of a political horizon leads to an escalation in the West Bank.
The government also dismissed Eisenkot’s suggestions on Gaza and a series of restrictions that would make things easier, added Barlev, indicating that tension forced Israel to settle with Hamas and allow Qatar to fund it with millions of dollars.
Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak also attacked Netanyahu for acting like a collaborator with Hamas, saying both want to destroy the Palestinian Authority.
Barak said that “the Israeli army and the Shin Bet must fight terrorism.”
Barak criticized decisions announced by Netanyahu in wake of recent operations, including house demolitions, saying they “encouraged terrorism”.
He noted that if recent measures were security-related, the government should not have waited for recent operations to establish them.
In the meantime, the Israeli cabinet meeting saw Sunday intense tension and exchanged accusations between Netanyahu and his Likud party ministers in face of ministers of the ultra-Orthodox settler party, the Jewish House, who attended the meeting after taking part in a protest against the government.
The government held its session in light of recent Israeli operations in several areas of the West Bank, where the Israeli forces demolished houses, arrested families, closed villages and towns including Ramallah, and approved a series of settlement projects.
Netanyahu said Sunday he had issued a warning to Hamas after recent deadly attacks in the West Bank, including two shootings claimed by the group.
“I conveyed a clear message to Hamas, we won’t accept a situation of a truce in Gaza and terror in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu told the cabinet meeting.
The PM announced that he had directed the Defense Ministry to establish new industrial zones near the Avnei Hefetz and Beitar Ilit settlements and to advance plans for the construction of 82 homes in the Ofra settlement.
“There will be other steps,” Netanyahu vowed.
Army and intelligence representatives presented reports detailing that what has been happening so far was not an uprising but a wave of operations by a single Hamas military cell operating in the central West Bank.
