Avigdor Kahalani
Avigdor KahalaniEliran Aharon

Brigadier General Avigdor Kahalani, who was awarded the Medal of Valor for his actions during the Yom Kippur War, expressed the pain he felt at seeing recent images from Arab riots on the Temple Mount and in cities across Israel.

In an interview with Galai Yisrael Radio, Kahalani said: "I will confess without a trace of shame. Seeing images of police getting humiliated made me shed some tears. You can't have a situation where police in the State of Israel are getting the middle finger and being forced to look the other way. We have to look a decade ahead and change our mode of thinking. Otherwise any bastard will be the king of us."

"This situation will get worse unless they provide police with the necessary tools," Kahalani warned. ''You can't have tenants watching their neighbor from the same building burning their vehicle. We need a higher presence of police officers, but I am not optimistic. I say difficult things but the state is important to me."

Channel 13 News commentator Zvi Yehezkeli also referred to documentation in which a policeman was seen running and being kicked on the Temple Mount. "When you see a policeman being kicked on the Temple Mount or obscene gestures being made at policemen - you realize you did not achieve the real goal of the operation, we look like a weak country and they smelled this weakness, those rioters from the Arab-Israeli population who committed the riots," Yehezkeli said.

Deputy Minister Yoav Kish of the Likud told Galai Tzahal that the police were slow to respond in the first days of the Arab riots: "I did not conduct the event, but with all due respect, it bothered me that in the first days of the riots the response was late. We must act in the strongest and most determined way against law-breakers."