MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) criticized efforts by the IDF to shift the blame for the terror attack Friday night to local security officials in Itamar. On a visit to the town in the wake of the murder of five members of the Fogel family, Ben-Ari said that “there is an interest in the security establishment to ignore basic security lapses in the IDF. It is no secret that security forces live in a pretend reality, dictated from above, in which there is a supposed 'cooperation' with what they call 'Palestinian Authority security forces.' Unfortunately, the IDF and Shabak operate under the instructions of Ehud Barak, who has a criminal reliance on the enemy.”
Barak, said Ben-Ari, had turned the IDF into a “contractor to demolish homes. Instead the army should be trying to identify the village where these terrorists came from, and when they find it, to chase all its residents out and destroy it. We must restore Israel's ability to instill fear in its enemies,” he added.