By Yaakov Lappin
Israel’s political system and its public remain deeply divided as the designated right-wing coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu headed into the final stretch of difficult negotiations between the majority Likud party and its future partners in government.
The negotiations contain multiple signs that the incoming government will break from the status quo that has defined decades of Israeli politics in terms of its determination to redefine the balance of power between the government, the legislative branch (Knesset), and the judiciary in unprecedented ways – and giving unprecedented powers to government.
On December 19, the avalanche of legislative reform planned by the coalition took the form of a bill brought to vote in the Knesset plenum after clearing a special Knesset committee. The law is designed to remove authority from the Israel Police Inspector General and place it in the hands of designated National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, head of the Jewish Strength party.
These powers include the ability to set direct, specific policing policies, make decisions on investigations and on budgetary matters which have direct consequences of police prioritization. Ben Gvir claims that his version of the bill includes compromises with its critics, since it includes a commitment to consult with the Attorney General about such decisions. While it does include a clause giving Ben Gvir power to make decisions about prosecutions, the latest version of the bill states that this will be done in consultation with the Attorney General and the police chief.
During the committee meeting, Ben Gvir clashed with Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon, who stated that the bill is “unbalanced.” Limon said that in a democratic state the authorities in question have dramatic consequences on issues such as freedom of protest and handling investigation files. Limon warned that great caution is needed when passing reforms in such areas and that the professional echelon should receive an influential role. “This process is too fast for such a complex issue,” Limon cautioned, adding that there are too many vague statements in the bill that leave much room for interpretation.
Such reforms join other changes being instigated by the incoming government, such as giving designated Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party head Bezalel Smotrich powers over the IDF Civil Administration’s policies in the West Bank, and inventing a new position for the far-right designated deputy minister Avi Maoz over extracurricular educational programs – a move that triggered a wave of commitments by secular Israeli municipalities to disregard Maoz’s authority and decisions.
West Bank warning lights are blinking red
Meanwhile, as political instability and tensions mount domestically, the security situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly over the past year.
On Sunday, Israeli security forces arrested a 47-year-old suspected Palestinian gunman for conducting a drive-by shooting attack on an Israeli vehicle north of Ariel. According to MirYam Institute senior research associate Maj. Gen. (res.) Eitan Dangot, who is former head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit, the fact that a growing number of terrorists over 40 are getting involved in violence, and that some have ties to Fatah, is a warning signal.
“A growing number of Fatah or Tanzim (a faction of Fatah) members are joining the cycle of terrorism – warning signs of an escalation and the shift to an intifada of terrorism,” Dangot tweeted.
Figures possessed by the IDF back up this warning. In the past year, there has been a major increase in the number of terror attacks in the West Bank and Israel – nearly 300 such attacks - compared to 91 in all of 2021.
The IDF’s Operation Break the Wave launched on March 31 2022 in response to a spate of murderous terror attacks in Israeli cities has foiled hundreds of terror plots and quashed localized terror groups in the northern West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority has lost its ability to govern.
But the ongoing operation has not diminished the motivation of Palestinians to join the violence – a sign of trouble up ahead in the coming year. The volatile situation in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, the potential of the Temple Mount to ignite new violence, the ongoing attempts and incitement by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others to add fuel to the fire, and future potential decisions by the new government could all see delicate attempts by the Israeli defense establishment to prevent a new intifada fall by the wayside. These attempts include promoting economic prosperity among Palestinians and granting them work visas – 150,000 Palestinians from the West Bank (representing 30% of the PA’s GDP in their earnings) and 17,000 Gazans have received such permits.
Since January 2022, 32 Israeli civilians and members of the security forces were killed in Palestinian attacks, and some 160 Palestinians, most of them armed terrorists and combatants, were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. A further 50 Palestinians were killed in Gaza during Operation Breaking Dawn, half of whom have been identified by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center as terrorists.
Israel to become first Western state to have aerial drone medical supply network
In late November, Israeli aero-logistics firm Gadfin and the Netanya-based Sarel medical purchasing and logistics company made history, when they announced that Israel will become the first Western country to receive a working drone medical delivery network linking all major hospitals.
The Rehovot-based Gadfin company will deploy its Spirit One unmanned aerial vehicle that takes off and lands vertically, and folds out its wings to fly like a plane after using rotors to take off.
Scenes that not long ago would have been considered science fiction will shortly become reality as the drone network picks up critical deliveries from Sarel’s logistics center in Netanya to fly them to Israeli hospitals within a 200-kilometer range.
“This will make Israel the first Western country in the world to have an automatic, on-demand medical delivery aerial grid,” the companies said in a joint statement. The drones will transport medicines, medical equipment, blood, serum, lab samples, vaccines and more in frozen containers when necessary, saving critical time and lives.
Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He provides insight and analysis for a number of media outlets, including Jane's Defense Weekly, a leading global military affairs magazine, and JNS.org, a news agency with wide distribution among Jewish communities in the U.S. Read full bio here.