For many years a major criticism has been that the government was apathetic about responding to rockets and terror against peripheral areas like Sderot in the South, as compared to Tel Aviv.
No longer. Now maybe the government has become as equally apathetic to terror in Tel Aviv as it is to terror in Sderot.
Once upon a time, a terror attack in Tel Aviv may have led to a massive response against those directly or even indirectly responsible to deter such future attacks.
An attack in Tel Aviv could have led to dozens or 100 Palestinian terror suspects being suddenly swept up in a mass-arrest operation.
Or maybe an attack in Tel Aviv could have led to airstrikes against a terror group’s commanders or assets in Gaza.
Following the terror attack in Tel Aviv this past weekend, the repeated message from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and others was to emphasize the success of the Israeli security officials who quickly halted the terrorist’s progress and killed him.
Just stopping the terrorist can hardly be considered a "success"
The big success was that “only” one security guard in Tel Aviv was killed and not many civilians.
In a very limited sense, that could be called a “success.”
But more accurately, that messaging is at most mitigating or spinning the degree of failure.
What’s more, is that this is the fourth terror attack in Tel Aviv in just under five months.
On March 9, a terrorist killed one person and wounded two in a shooting attack.
On April 7, a terrorist killed a tourist and wounded five others in a car ramming.
Only a month ago, on July 4, a terrorist used a car ramming and stabbing to wound eight people.
And yet most of the responses from the government to such attacks in Tel Aviv these days is to emphasize that Israel always gets even.
However, getting even has never been the goal before – it has been to prevent terror from impacting Israelis anywhere, “even” in the peripheral areas of the South or the West Bank, but for sure in the country’s secure center and in Tel Aviv.
The terrorist's accomplices are also being arrested.
Another attack emanating from Jenin was stopped on Sunday, probably in no small part because the security forces were temporarily on heightened alert following the Tel Aviv attack.
But there is nothing proactive or strategic here to alter the picture or to truly deter such future attacks.
The massive operation in Jenin at the beginning of July was the most strategic action the IDF has taken; stabilizing the Palestinian Authority – if the government ever gets around to doing so – would be another strategic action.
The 210,000 Palestinians working for Israelis is another strategic action, but that is not going to put down the wave of terror among Palestinians who have already chosen terror.
Without a lot more such strategic actions, using both “carrots” and “sticks,” the country is unfortunately likely to see more attacks in Tel Aviv and just about anywhere else.
Without such strategic actions, the government is mostly left to try to spin “victories” out of what is really mitigating failures.