With Milhem dead, politicians talk frayed Arab-Jewish relations

A day after fugitive Israeli Arab gunman Nashat Milhem was killed in a shootout with security forces, and with the implications of his actions on Jewish-Arab relations at the forefront of public discourse, several opposition politicians stressed Saturday that the attack should not be allowed to blight the entire Arab population of the country.

“This criminal incident cannot serve as an excuse to withhold budgets to reduce gaps [between the Jewish and Arab sectors], or further inflame hatred and fear among Israeli Jews and Arabs,” said Meretz leader Zehava Galon at a cultural event in Nes Ziona, Army Radio reported.

Yesh Atid MK Yaakov Peri echoed her remarks at a similar event in Beersheba, the Maariv website reported.

“During manifestations of Jewish terror I make a point of saying that one cannot generalize about all residents of the settlements in Judea and Samaria, just as one cannot generalize about all Arab Israelis,” said Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet security service.

“The number of Arab Israelis directly involved in terrorism is minimal, and I hope that it does not grow.”

After Milhem’s shooting spree in Tel Aviv last Friday that killed two civilians at a bar and the driver of a taxi the killer had used as a getaway vehicle, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a dramatic increase in police enforcement in Arab towns. He claimed the Arab sector was flooded by “incitement in mosques, incitement in the education system, incitement in social media” and vowed to root out lawlessness and radicalism in the Arab population.

But Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli on Saturday said Netanyahu’s own policies were to blame for recent events, and that a lack of a diplomatic agenda on his part was perpetuating tensions and violence in the country.

“I congratulate the security forces for a precision operation, but
killing this terrorist will not restore security for Israeli
citizens,” she said, according to the Walla website. “The lack of personal security on the streets is at a record high… and the prime minister wants to you to think that the Dizengoff terrorist has been killed and it is all over, there is no danger and routine is restored, It is more of the same that Netanyahu has been saying for seven years now.”

Meanwhile Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman said the Tel Aviv attack was the result of overly-forgiving policies towards Arab extremism.

Mentioning his efforts ahead of the last election to bar the Israeli-Arab Balad party from the Knesset, Liberman appeared to link the actions and statements of its controversial lawmakers to the attack in Tel Aviv.

“We filed a bill that would have prevented Hanin Zoabi and Jamal Zahalka from running and the coalition led by Netanyahu foiled it. Whoever stops such a bill and lets Zoabi be a Knesset member should not be surprised by shots in Dizengoff,” he said.