WhatsappAs Israel demonstrates extraordinary military capability against distant threats, whether striking targets in Iran or confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is a troubling reality much closer to home. In Judea and Samaria, Jews continue to face repeated terror attacks, and too often, the response from the IDF feels inconsistent and insufficient.
Why is there such a gap?
Because, officially, in Judea and Samaria, there is no clearly defined enemy, only a population we are expected to coexist with.
Unfortunately, there is much hesitation, within public discourse, media narratives, and even elements of leadership, political and Rabbinic, to clearly define the whole jihadi population in Judea and Samaria who self-identity as “palestinians” as an enemy.
Without that clarity, security policy becomes reactive rather than strategic. Arab Muslim Parents in Judea and Samaria literally send their kids to schools that teach them to kill Jews and destroy Israel (yes, that is the official curriculum of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA textbooks) yet official Israel, and our own organizational and Rabbinic leaders, still won’t call the jihadi population in Judea and Samaria an enemy? Polls showed how they celebrated the Oct. 7th massacre, yet they are still defined as a population the IDF is supposed to allow for coexistence with and not as an enemy to be totally stopped?
Instead, we are fed headline news of “settler violence” where in most cases it is Jews who are punished for trying to stop the jihadis, as the IDF is not given the clear orders needed to act decisively and protect our lives.
Recent events highlight this problem.
Just a few days ago, near Efrat, a group of young pioneers established a new farm called Kochav Yehuda. Its purpose was simple and strategic: to connect Efrat to Tekoa and stop the ongoing Arab illegal land grab in the area.
For years, Arabs had been building illegally on that area. Finally, our youth decided to act and protect our communities. The Border Police were then sent in to evacuate the Jewish youth at Kochav Yehuda. As the evacuation took place, Arabs from the surrounding villages celebrated, cheering as Israeli forces removed Jews trying to stop their illegal takeover of the land.
Hours later, once the IDF and Border Police had left, those same Arabs turned around and stoned the Jewish residents.
This is the upside-down reality we are living with in Judea and Samaria.
The army is used to remove Jews from their ancestral land, while the real land-grabbers and terrorists are allowed to celebrate, and then attack with impunity.
Fortunately, no one was injured because an Efrat resident who was armed fired warning shots into the air and then toward one of the rock throwers, killing him, helping stop the mob attack. No arrests were made among those jihadis who carried out the assault, while the Jewish individual who acted to protect lives was taken into custody.
If that is not shocking enough, another incident just took place in the Shomron near the Arab village of Taasir, where the outcome was far more serious.
A Jewish teenager was critically wounded after a rock was thrown at his head at close range. A soldier at the scene acted quickly, neutralizing the attacker and likely saving the boy’s life.
These incidents did not occur in isolation.
Just over a week ago, the IDF Chief of Staff made an extremely bad move, removing Battalion 941 of Netzach Yehuda for “improperly” dealing with a CNN journalist who came to provoke the soldiers as they were dealing with the jihadi terrorists.
The enemy understood the message very well, our own soldiers did not have the backing of the Chief of Staff, so our jihadi enemy escalated their terror against the Jews in the area, and this youth paid the price for it literally with his blood.
This raises a difficult but necessary question: what message is being communicated, to the Jews and to the jihadi terrorists carrying out the attacks?
In a region as volatile as this one, perceptions matter. When IDF responses appear inconsistent, punishing IDF soldiers, evacuating Jews from strategic points, while the terror of an enemy is not dealt with and definitely not deterred, that directly empowers our enemy to continue terrorizing us.
This is not simply a question of security tactics. It is about clarity, moral, strategic, and operational.
Israel has shown that it can act decisively when confronting the Islamic regime of Iran and its proxies in the region, clearly identifying them as enemies that must be stopped.
So the question must be asked: when will Israel finally apply that same clarity and resolve to the Palestinian Authority, which pays salaries to terrorists in its jails, and to the jihadi population in Judea and Samaria that educates its children to murder us? They are an enemy that must be stopped. Period.
This enemy is not thousands of miles away in Tehran. They live right here, in our biblical heartland, living among us and threatening our lives every single day. Yet, they have yet to be defined as an emeny despite their daily efforts to kill us.
The self-identiying “palestinians” are modern-day Amalek, acting for decades with the exact same brutality as their biblical predecessors, deliberately targeting the young, the old, the innocent, and the defenseless.
It is not moral to refrain from calling them the enemy and to try to coexist with them, it is immoral.
Because by refusing to name them for what they are, we enable the continuation of their terror, guaranteeing that more Jewish lives will be taken.
It’s time to protect our people from the jihadi Arabs who live next to us with the same determination we show against distant threats.
Without clarity in finally identitying the whole jihadi population of self-identifying “palestinans” who support killing Jews and destroying Israel, as an enemy, there can be no consistent IDF policy.
And without consistency and moral clarity, despite the important work our soldiers are doing in Judea and Samaria, and I’m one of those soldiers, the army from the top will continue its confusing and self-defeating activities in Judea and Samaria, actions that repeatedly empower our jihadi enemies, embolden them to keep terrorizing us, and ultimately cost more Jewish lives.
We cannot defeat an enemy we refuse to name and whose ideology we are afraid to confront.
I’m not worried about the rebuilding of Kochav Yehuda and the other outposts and farms in Judea and Samaria.
Thanks to the unbelievable strength and resilience of our younger generation, they will keep returning to rebuild, despite the constant terror threats from the surrounding jihadi population and even after being repeatedly evacuated by the IDF. They will continue strengthening our strategic presence to protect Jewish communities across the biblical heartland, and they will succeed in creating that vital corridor connecting Efrat to Tekoa.
The real problem is: How many more Jews will be terrorized, wounded, or murdered in the process because our political, Rabbinic and military leaders still refuse to treat the jihadi population who self-identity as “palestinians” in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and the Palestinian Authority that pays them and educates them, as the enemy they truly are?
It is up to us to start naming them as an enemy to bring about the change to protect our lives. And then, we implement Trump’s emigration plan…
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
