Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alonYonatan Sindel / Flash 90

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon visited the Gush Etzion Regional Brigade base Monday, along with Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Golan, commander of Central Command, Gen. Roni Numa, commander of the Judea and Samaria Division, Brigadier General Lior Carmeli and commander of the Etzion Brigade, Roman Gofner.

"We have taken several steps," he said. "First of all we have added significant reinforcements to our forces, including such defensive operations as inspecting vehicles leaving [Palestinian] villages to main roads. No vehicle will enter an Israeli road without being checked." 

He, like Netanyahu, said security forces are focused on offensive action.

"I hear many say we should return and do Operation Defensive Shield 2 in Judea and Samaria, but we have been on the offensive ever since Operation Defensive Shield," he argued. "The fact that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are unable to raise their heads, and that as a result these terror attacks are essentially individual [i.e. 'lone wolf' - ed.] terrorism, is because we carry out counterterrorist operations every night." 

Ya'alon acknowledged, however, that additional steps are being taken, "to eventually halt the wave of terrorism not only here, but also in Judea-Samaria and inside the State of Israel." 

"This terror wave is not accidental," he continued. "It's on the rise in relation to what is happening in the region, it's related to the Palestinian Authority incitement with the Temple Mount - an issue which is currently calmer, but still we have those saying that because Al-Aqsa is in danger, they will attack us." 

"The situation is unstable and incitement continues," he added. 

 It surge related to what is happening in the region, is the wave relating to the transfer of PA incitement had to do with the Temple Mount, an issue currently calm, but still those we stop telling us that because of al-Aqsa in danger, they are going to attack . that the network situation is still unstable and incitement continues.

Ya'alon called battling radical Islam "our challenge." 

"In this respect we are with the West, in the same boat, and those who try to isolate us or blame this terror wave on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, are simply mistaken; whoever gets the diagnosis wrong will also get the prognosis wrong." 

"Beyond what we're doing here, we're trying to influence our friends in the world, to realize that we are on the same side. "