Ya’alon: Terror groups ‘would attack us if they could’

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Tuesday that if Palestinian terror groups could carry out terror attacks, they would do so, and he warned that “it may still happen.”

Ya’alon conducted a tour of the West Bank, under security control of the Yehuda regional brigade, during which he was briefed by regional commanders and visited the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Speaking to soldiers of the brigade, Ya’alon said: “There is motivation to carry out terror attacks, it exists here, but we know how to prevent this ahead of time with good intelligence and operational activities. Many lives are saved as a result of the arrests you make, as well as the security activity intended to prevent friction, and prevent attacks around the communities and around major roads. This is activity that ends up saving many lives.

“We are undertaking additional activities as you can see, encouraging the Palestinian economy, jobs, employment, commerce, because we believe this keeps tensions low,” Ya’alon said.

He added that the reality of life in the West Bank “is complicated. We had terror attacks where Jews were killed, in the Binyamin region, in Dolev, on Alon Road, but unfortunately we also had Jewish terrorism in Duma, that firebombing that now already killed two people, a father and a baby. These things do not contribute to the atmosphere remaining stable,” he said.

“We are still in the middle of a wave of retaliations for the terror attack in Duma,” Ya’alon said. “It’s not that there were no terror attacks before that, but it’s clear that some of the attacks we see, like the car-ramming attack at the Sinjil junction [in which three soldiers were run over] – this is obviously a reaction to Duma. They incite on Palestinian media, and people take their cars and run over someone, because it’s available. They take a knife and try to murder a Jew on Road 443. These are easily available attacks,” Ya’alon said, adding that “if the organizations, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, had the capability to carry out attacks, they would do as much. Meanwhile we’ve been spared this, attacks by the terror groups, but it still might happen. This is why you have to remain alert.”

Ya’alon was a target of a political attack during his visit, but from the Israeli far right.

Activist and former Knesset hopeful Baruch Marzel attacked Ya’alon’s car during the latter’s visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

“Enemy of the settlements, minister without security, strong against Jews and weak against Arabs,” Marzel reportedly shouted at Ya’alon, making a pun of Ya’alon’s title [defense and security are synonymous in Hebrew.]

Ya’alon wasn’t injured and Marzel wasn’t arrested.

Marzel, a Boston-born ultra-nationalist, is a resident of Tel Rumeida, a Jewish settlement located in the heart of Hebron overlooking the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Marzel’s attack was presumably a reaction to Ya’alon’s approval last week of the use of administrative detention against radical Jewish activists.

His decision came in response to the Duma firebombing attack.