Netanyahu: Israel must fight Jewish terror ‘with ferocity,’ but diffuse networks are hard to crack

Netanyahu is asked about the deadly Duma attack by suspected Jewish extremists on a Palestinian family in July.

Israel responded forcefully, the Prime Minister said. “I did something: I issued administrative detentions, putting [suspected Jewish terrorists] under arrest without trial, because we have to fight this with ferocity.”

“The problem is this is not an organized network.”

“Typically, the way you discover terror attacks or criminal gangs is that they have hierarchies. A modern state cracks that, sometimes quickly and sometimes over time. When you encounter something that isn’t structured that way, when you encounter 15- and 16-year-olds who don’t communicate, who are clever and have figured out where the Achilles’ heel is,” states don’t always know how to tackle that problem.

“We have cracked lesser crimes. Someone damaged a church in the Galilee. This is the most violent act, and that’s why we haven’t cracked it.”

“Our measures [against Jewish terrorists] are legion. It is difficult [to disrupt it entirely] precisely because it is not structured.”