Israeli Cabinet cheers Trump, ignores IDF warnings
While IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot warns of a new wave of terrorism in the West Bank, the Security Cabinet prefers to cheer President Donald Trump on his decisions against the Palestinians.
At a meeting of the Security Cabinet on Sept. 16, the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, warned that the chances of a violent confrontation in the West Bank now stand at anywhere from 60% to 80%. He did not use the term “intifada,” but everybody knew exactly what he meant. This warning, which was apparently based on an assessment by the Research Division of Military Intelligence, should have set red lights flashing for all the ministers. After all, the chief of staff was telling them as clearly as possible that a new wave of terrorism could break out in the West Bank at any given moment. Yet they chose to cast aspersions on his assessment, apparently for the very reasons he said could lead to an eruption of violence.
IDF officials believe the main factor that could spark the violence is the punitive measures that the Trump administration has been taking against the Palestinian Authority.
Eizenkot also cited the failure of the contacts between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ unstable relationship with the Arab world and his poor health as factors that could generate an escalation in the West Bank. That was relatively easy for the Cabinet to digest.
On the other hand, Cabinet members could not imagine that steps taken by President Donald Trump, which they consider positive, are considered dangerous by the IDF. These include such measures as relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem, cutting off funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), closing the PLO representative’s office in Washington and depicting Abbas as being opposed to peace.
