The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) refuses to adopt the term “intifada” to describe what is now taking place in the territories. Instead, the current definition used by the army closely resembles what the Palestinians call the recent events: an “outburst.” A high-placed military officer told Al-Monitor this week that it is possible that we are entering an era that will include recurring, periodic outbursts of localized violence. According to IDF indexes, there is still no public grass-roots Palestinian support for an uprising along the lines of the first (1987) or second (2000) intifada. A senior Israeli officer asking that his name not be divulged told me that “last Saturday night [Oct. 3], a total of only 3,900 Palestinians went out to demonstrate throughout Judea and Samaria. That is the number, the only number. A number like this does not constitute an intifada.”
Meanwhile, the real intifada is taking place within the Israeli political right. The settler chiefs, supported by HaBayit HaYehudi Party Ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked from within the coalition and firebrand oppositionist Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman from without, demonstrated outside the Jerusalem house of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct. 5. Three ministers attended this demonstration: Zeev Elkin, Yariv Levin and Haim Katz — ministers who are protesting the policies of the government to which they belong. This is, evidently, a unique Israeli concept.
One way or the other, the right-wing demonstrators demand the immediate establishment of a new settlement in the territories as a response to the comings and goings of President Mahmoud Abbas and the violent “outbursts.” They call for a return to another Defensive Shield operation, similar to the 2002 IDF counterterrorism operation in the West Bank during the second intifada, in order to restore Israel’s security and deterrence.
It is actually the IDF that is functioning in this situation like the responsible adult. Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot is a restrained, composed human being, pragmatic and realistic. He does not try to conceal his views and does not kowtow to the diplomatic echelons. He reportedly said on Oct. 6 that the IDF still has full freedom of action and that the diplomatic echelons completely back up the military.
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