A number of former senior members of Israel's security establishment gathered at a conference on Tuesday in Tel Aviv to discuss what they dubbed as the deterioration of personal and domestic security in Israel.
The conference, organized by Maj. Gen. (res.) MK Yoav Gallant together with the Zionist organization Im Tirtzu, focused on Israel's domestic security situation in the wake of the May 2021 riots.
The conference featured talks from an array of former senior security officials, including Maj. Gen. (res.) MK Gallant, former Shin Bet Director MK Avi Dichter, former MK and Israel Border Police commander David Tzur, Maj. Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv, Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon HaCohen, Brig. Gen. (res.) and founder of the "HaBithonistim" organization Amir Avivi, Dr. Mordechai Kedar and Lt. Col. Boaz Kokia of the Choosing Life Forum of Bereaved Families.
"If rapid action is not taken to halt the crime and violence, there is a large concern that Israel's domestic security issues will escalate to the point where our security forces will lose control," said MK Gallant.
"If we lose the Negev and the Galilee, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will also be lost. The nationalistic crime that is rampant and is consuming all parts of the Negev and Galilee is spreading and will end up reaching the center of the country."
Gallant also accused the current government of not doing enough to curb the violence and said that "forming a government with Ra'am, the party of the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel, gives legitimacy and a sense of security to those who are convinced they are the masters of the land."
Former Shin Bet Director MK Avi Dichter said: "The violence and crime in Israel in general, and specifically in the Arab sector, needs to be declared as a national crisis; not just a verbal declaration, but an operative declaration. When you declare a national crisis, you need to engage in an all-out war in which everyone is enlisted. This is not only the mission of the Israel Police. The Shin Bet and the IDF need to also take responsibility."
Former head of the IDF's Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. (res.) Israel Ziv said that what occurred in the Negev over the past few weeks is not a matter of crime, rather it is a national matter.
"We are seeing the Islamization of the Bedouin population and a process of uncontrollable nationalization. We are living in a period of weak Israeli leadership, and if we continue down this road the 'small' problem we have now will turn into another Iranian problem."
David Tzur, former MK, District Commander of the Police in Tel Aviv and head of the Border Police, said: "When the Israel Police decided to take out the Jewish crime organizations – it succeeded. We need to give the police the tools necessary [to take out the Arab crime organizations]. Eighty percent of the police's budget goes toward salaries, and of the remaining 20 percent, 15 goes toward maintenance. That leaves only five percent of the budget for activities. You can't operate this way and it requires significant change."
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gershon HaCohen called to declare a national state of emergency.
"We are at war, and unfortunately our leadership and the Israeli society are doing everything to deny the situation. There is a fight against the State of Israel's ability to exercise its sovereignty. What erupted in May 2021 stemmed from a general feeling among part of the Israeli Arabs that their time has come. We need to go on the offensive against these post-Zionist trends."
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and CEO of Habithonistim, said: "We are witnessing two vectors that are growing stronger and are going to meet in a year or two. The first is the Palestinian-Arab war against Israel, and the second is Iran's strategic race for the bomb. We can be faced with riots throughout the entire country for which the IDF is not prepared."
Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg said: "Our security is deteriorating because we are always concerned about not upsetting the Arabs. If we get used to that situation, it will bring us back to a situation far worse than the UN Partition Plan. We could be leaving behind scorched earth for the next generations. We will only overcome these challenges if we believe in the justness of our cause and act accordingly."