Due to the rising tensions in the countries neighboring Northern Israel, the IDF has recently positioned multiple “Iron Dome” anti-rocket systems around Israel’s north.

Some of the installations are nearby to Israeli Arab villages, and NRG/Maariv reports that today a group of Israeli Arabs cursed the IDF soldiers manning the installation, and pelted them with rocks till the police arrived.

A 14 year old Israeli Arab was arrested.

The IDF denies that the recent placement of  Iron Dome batteries has anything to do with the insurgency in Syria or the alleged chemical and game-changing weapon transfers.

The question is, why would Israeli Arabs hurl curses, harass and stone IDF soldiers — when the anti-rocket system protects them as well?

What a perplexing country we live in.

Visit the Muqata.

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Yishai interviews Jamal Khori, an accountant that studies at Hebrew University and is also number seven on the party list for the Hope for Change, which is an alternative Arab party running in the upcoming elections. Yishai and Khori discuss how his party is one that is comprised of Arabs but also dedicated to the State of Israel.

Yishai Fleisher on Twitter: @YishaiFleisher
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Yishai is joined by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a scholar of Arabic literature and academic expert on the Israeli Arab population.  Together, they discuss Israel’s relationship with it’s neighbors, especially Turkey, Egypt, and Iran and how the rapidly changing situations in each of these countries affects Israel.  Keep informed and listen to this segment!

Yishai Fleisher on Twitter: @YishaiFleisher
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After months of the story being censored, Israel Army Radio announced that  the police have solved what they are calling a very serious “criminal/nationalist” crime.

The Lerner family returned to their home in Raanana and discovered their home was robbed. The family called the police, and while the police were there, the father, Eyal Lerner began to become very sick. Very quickly, other family members became sick too, as well as one of the volunteer policemen that was on the scene, for a total of 4 sick people.

Eyal Lerner was in a coma for 24 hours and in the hospital for at least a week.

The police announced today that the robbers not only robbed the house, but as part of a nationalist attack also poisoned the drinks and food in the house in the hope of killing the Jewish family. The police are not releasing the name of the poison at this point, but they brought the poison with them specifically for that purpose.

The investigation led the police to find the two, or possible three, suspected terrorists.  Two are Israeli Arabs, and the third suspect, Atman Nasrallah, who supplied the poison, is from the territories.

One of the Israeli Arabs, Hassab Addel Rachim, had been hired by Lerner as a contractor to do some construction work on Lerner’s new apartment. Lerner says there were no financial or other disputes between the two beforehand.

JERUSALEM – A new phase in the covert war between Israel and Iran’s proxy Hizbullah militia is taking place within the borders of the Jewish state, as Hizbullah has recruited scores of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs for missions ranging from arson to suicide bombings.

Israel Police and Fire Department officials acknowledged to the Israel Hayom newspaper that a series of serious forest fires at the entrance to Jerusalem and the Carmel/metro Haifa region during the past few weeks had been set by small teams of arsonists intent on destroying the country’s nature reserves and stretching the resources of Israel’s firefighting capabilities.

“I’m convinced that several of the fires that have broken out in our area are the result of nationalistic motives,” said the commander of the Haifa Fire Department.

Last week, Israel Police and Shin Bet agents exposed a burgeoning Israeli Arab terror network operating in Nazareth and Ghajar (a village along the Israel-Lebanon border) responsible for smuggling both drugs and sophisticated bomb devices from Lebanon into Israel at the behest of Hizbullah agents.

“These aren’t the small devices we’ve seen in the past to blow up buses,” said an Israel Police official. “These bombs have enough power to actually bring down a whole building.”

While law enforcement authorities were successful in discovering the terrorist smuggling ring, they’ve been unsuccessful in finding out where and to whom the bombs were to be delivered.

Police intelligence sources believe a number of Hizbullah “sleeper” suicide bombers will launch attacks on Israel’s civilian population in the event of an Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear sites or Hizbullah missile bases.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has boasted that his forces would capture an Israeli village as part of an overall plan to “liberate the Galilee.” Israeli security officials believe Hizbullah may be able to invade and temporarily hold a community along the Lebanese-Israeli border with the assistance of enemy agents operating inside Israel’s borders.

A majority of Israeli Jews and Arabs are pessimistic about the likelihood of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian in the coming years, according to the results of the Peace Index poll, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute in conjunction with Tel Aviv University.

The survey, conducted from April 30th – May 2nd polled a representative sample of 599 Israeli Jews and Arabs, on a variety of questions about the peace process, national identity, and government efficacy. Jewish and Arab responses to the question “do you believe or not believe that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinians in the coming years” mirrored each other, with two-thirds of both demographics responding in the negative. As to the question of whether they believe “that there is a real chance to resolve the conflict in accordance with the ‘two states for two peoples’ formula in the next ten years,” the attitudes of the two demographics again coalesced, with 58% of Jews and 61% of Arabs expressing at least a moderate level of skepticism.

Israeli Jews and Arabs differ sharply on their views of government priorities, for while “reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians” registered as the most important priority for 34% of Arab respondents, the same priority was ranked third among Jewish respondents (15%), behind “reducing socioeconomic gaps” (41%) and “creating affordable housing” (16%). “Reducing the socioeconomic gap”, a longstanding issue in the Arab sector, registered as the most important priority for 28% of Arabs polled.

The greatest contrast between the two sectors was reflected in their answers to the question of whether ‘Hatikvah’ is suitable “to serve as the national anthem of the State of Israel, in which approximately one-fifth of citizens are Arabs”: 80% of Jews said that it was moderately or very suitable, while 90% of Arab respondents said that it was moderately or completely unsuitable.

In terms of evaluating the state of Israel’s success in a variety of fields, 85% of Israeli Jews said that Israel was moderately or very successful in ensuring the state’s existence militarily, versus 75% of Israeli Arabs; and 63% of Israeli Jews said that Israel was moderately or very successful in maintaining the democratic regime, versus 42% of Israeli Arabs. Interestingly, whereas only 18% of Israeli jews said that Israel was moderately or very successful in promoting peace with the Arab world, 45% of Israeli Arabs felt the same way.

Some Israeli Arab leaders have caused tremendous damage to relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel. These leaders are responsible for the fact that a growing number of Jews today view Arab citizens as a “fifth column” and an “enemy from within.”

The Arab members of Knesset should be fighting for equality and better services for their constituents, and not spending most of their time defending Fatah and Hamas and issuing fiery statements against Israel.

Participating in a flotilla aid ship to the Gaza Strip does not help improve the living conditions of Israeli Arabs. Nor does participating in Fatah rallies held in Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank.

Some of the Arab Knesset members have obviously forgotten that they were elected by Arab citizens of Israel and not by Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There is nothing wrong, of course, with expressing solidarity with the Palestinians there. After all, Israeli Arabs see themselves as part of the Palestinian people.

But there is a feeling among Israeli Arabs that at least half of their representatives in the Knesset care more about their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than their constituents.

Israeli Arabs would like to see their representatives fighting to solve the many problems they are facing, such as poverty and unemployment. They would like to see Arab parliamentarians struggling for improved infrastructure and more government funds for Arab municipalities.

Israel, also, can play a role in undermining the radicals among its Arab community. The best way to weaken the radicals is by embracing the Arab citizens rather than alienating them.

Embracing Israeli Arabs would boost their confidence in Israel and drive them away from radicals who are making every effort to drag Israel’s Arab citizens toward a confrontation with the Israeli establishment.

If Israel does not build a community center in Baka Al-Gharbiyya, the Islamic Movement will do so.

Israel needs to start working on repairing the damage that has been caused to relations between Jews and Arabs inside the country. The PLO and Hamas have damaged relations not only between Jews and Palestinians, but also between Arabs and Jews living inside Israel.

In recent years, Israeli governments have taken a number of decisions aimed at rebuilding mutual confidence between Arab and Jewish citizens.

These decisions include allocating additional public funding to Arab municipalities, and investment in infrastructure in Arab villages and towns, as well as incorporating Israeli Arabs in jobs in the public and private sectors.

When the Arab citizens see that their state cares about them and does not relate to them as an enemy, they will keep a distance from the radicals. The radical leaders of the Arab community find fertile soil among disgruntled Israeli Arabs, especially young people who are looking for a better life and paying jobs.

The overwhelming majority of Israeli Arabs remains loyal to the state even though they do not identify with its national anthem. Peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs inside Israel is not a lost cause.

Originally published by Gatestone Institute www.gatestoneinstitute.org