Yaron Blum, a senior Shin Bet official who was a member of the negotiating team for the release of Gilad Shalit, on Sunday told Radio 103 FM that the metal detectors should be removed from the Temple Mount.
“The State of Israel must ask itself tough questions,” Blum said. “There is the issue of where did the fire begin. After all, if it weren’t the metal detectors it would have been a different issue.”
Blum noted that following the attack last week which ended in the murder of two policemen, the cabinet accepted the police metal detectors against the objections of the Shin Bet and the IDF. “The cabinet must make decisions based on political considerations,” Blum said, depicting the police solution as nearsighted.
This from an official who persuaded the Israeli government to free some 1,100 Arab murderers with Jewish blood on their hands in exchange for a single Israeli soldier with a fantastic PR machine.
Warning the Netanyahu cabinet against reaching decisions based on strictly electoral reasons, Blum said that Israel now has “another two-day window of opportunity to get off the metal detector issue which are important on the tactical level but stupid on the strategic level.”
Stupid because the detectors have generated a crisis involving the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority.
“They are all against us,” said Blum. “Things are happening now that we have not seen in many years because of the fact that the Temple Mount is governed by consensus.”
Referring to Friday’s attack in Halamish, Blum said he believes it was “created as a result of incitement around the Temple Mount.”
“People don’t understand this, but most the terror attacks are thwarted before they are carried out. There is only a small percentage that is not thwarted,” the former Shin Bet man explained. “There are more than 600 posts similar to the post of the terrorist from Halamish which were caught in the databases of the Shin Bet.”
Blum blames Israeli radical Muslim cleric Ra’ed Salah’s relentless incitement for the attack by three Israeli Arab terrorists on the Temple Mount a week ago. “Ra’ed Salah goes in and out of prison and cynically exploits Israel’s democracy,” Blum noted.
When asked what is the Shin Bet’s response to incitements, Blum replied: “It is difficult to supervise so many supporters and believers, members of the Islamic Movement, when their movement has been outlawed. When these associations were legal, it was easier to supervise them.”
“In my opinion, the instigators must be arrested and more significant measures must be taken in punishing them,” Blum said.
“Most of the Israeli Arab population wants to integrate into Israeli society and they do integrate,” Blum stated. “There are a few who want to destroy it, led by Knesset members such as Ahmed Tibi, who does not want to represent his Arab public, and Hanin Zuabi, who stands before the police in Jerusalem and harms everyone’s security.”
“I think we have a window of opportunity of a few days in which we have to reach agreements with Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf states, most emphatically Saudi Arabia,” Blum said, adding, “And of course to talk to the Palestinian Authority, which is our most important partner. We will miss Mahmoud Abbas after he’s gone. Street battles will begin over who would take control. We must help Abbas.”
I cited the entire interview not because I support much or any of its conclusions, but as an important illustration of the echo chamber inside which Israel’s clandestine services as well as many in the IDF leadership are currently entrenched. It is, in fact, likely that should Israel Police accept his advice and start arresting the anti-Israeli Muslim leadership on both sides of the green-line, the Yaron Blums would rise up to preach more moderation – because Israel must help Abbas.
Blum would not acknowledge that the metal detectors are a symbol of Israeli sovereignty, and that is the element the Arab mob and its criminal leaders cannot tolerate. Israel is not supposed to be there, and the fact that it is represents an irredeemable offense – no matter which aspect of the Jewish State is being attacked at the moment.
