Can the Shin Bet stop hilltop youths' march to Armageddon?

On Jan. 24, Israel filed a charge of manslaughter against a student from the Pri HaAretz yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Rehelim. The indictment states that on Oct. 12, 2018, the 16-year-old threw a heavy rock at a car driven by a Palestinian family on Highway 60 between the Rehelim and Tapuah intersections. The rock killed Aisha Rabi, a mother of eight.

The investigation into the incident by the Shin Bet and the Nationalist Crimes Unit of the Israel Police lasted more than three months. At the investigation's launch, leaders of the settler movement deemed it a witch hunt and began one of their own with the backing of members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They leveled harsh criticism against the Shin Bet and police, with claims that they had employed brutal tactics against the suspects, who were all minors. No means were considered out of bounds, they said, even alleging that the suspects had been prevented from meeting with their attorneys.

In point of fact, the situation was the opposite. The real witch hunt was conducted against the Shin Bet, with Netanyahu, the highest authority over the intelligence agency charged with ensuring Israelis’ security, failing to back it. Several days passed before he even mumbled his way through a few words of generic support. Ministers and Knesset members from Netanyahu's party also targeted the Shin Bet and police, in an effort to appease the settlers and win a few more votes in the upcoming Likud primary, in less than two weeks.

Some 98% of all terrorist activity in the West Bank is conducted by Palestinians against Israelis, and 95% of the Shin Bet’s activity is aimed at thwarting attacks and resolving cases. At the same time, the Shin Bet also considers Jewish terrorism to be a serious problem.