Dismantling a part of the terror apparatus

I generally don't rely on Arutz 7 (Israel National News) for accurate reporting on regional events any more than I would rely on the New York Times. Both have a clear editorial bias, and both consider at least part of their mission to sway, rather than just inform, their readers.

However, when it comes to finding out gritty details and facts on the ground in the aftermath of events in Judea and Samaria (the 'West Bank'), Arutz 7 has far better access to the raw information from the people involved than other media outlets, and they tend to have an unfiltered channel to the local security apparatus... both of which allow it to provide a clearer picture of breaking news specific to my region than anyone else.

For instance, while almost all Israeli media outlets and all of the international press are still making blanket pronouncements about "five members of a settler family [as if 'settler' were some less worthy sub-species of homo sapien] being killed by alleged terrorists", Arutz 7 already has a detailed time-line up on their site which indicates that no matter how horrific the results of this attack, it could still have been far, far worse.

According to arutz 7, it is now known that the 12 year old daughter - Tamar Fogel - who came home shortly after midnight from her youth group event and discovered the carnage, had hosted many of her friends at her house earlier that evening for a meal.

In fact, based on the time-line which starts with the first alarm from the electronic fence (which was tragically ignored by the security guard who thought it was caused by an animal), and ends with a second alarm at the same spot; indicating the exit of the terrorists from the town, the terrorist(s) was already inside the town of Itamar, and likely inside an empty house next door, before the daughter and her friends had left the Fogel home.

I won't go into the rest of the gory time-line here, (although I urge you to read the full account), but according to the report, when the Army was finally alerted and were able to determine the terrorist(s) infiltration and escape point, they noted that "At 03:30 a.m., military trackers discovered footprints leading to the Arab village of Avrata."

Now here is where we go from what may, or may not, have been - as some contend - one or two individuals acting of their own volition (i.e. not with the sanction and sponsorship of one of the known Palestinian terror organizations), and moves into the realm of communal responsibility.

I'm sure few of the people reading this have ever wandered near or through an Arab village in the middle of the night.  But having spent several years on my town's anti-terror response squad, I can assure you that nothing comes or goes in these small villages - even in the wee hours of the morning - without someone being aware.

The murderer(s) who came from, and returned to, the village of Avrata on Friday night did so under the eyes, and likely with the cooperation of, the residents.   And this makes entirely moot any claims and counterclaims of wider responsibility.

Although there isn't the slightest chance that it will happen, IMHO at this point our Defense Minister should issue a simple directive: Interview every man woman and child in the village of Avrata, and unless someone identifies the terrorist(s), the villagers should be given 24 hours to remove their belongings... after which they would all be driven to the Allenby Bridge and deported.

Once the village was cleared of people, the bulldozers would be ordered to move in and erase every trace that a village had ever existed on that site; leaving not one stone on another.

Once this minimal justice had been accomplished, the Prime Minister should then direct that the land on which the village had sat be surveyed, divided into building plots, and sold at auction for the development of a new Israeli town, with the proceeds placed in trust for the surviving children of the Fogel family.

Given the active collusion of the Palestinian Authority in such matters, we will likely never know for sure who ordered the attack, and maybe not even who carried it out (although the IDF and General Security Services seem to have an uncanny way of laying their hands on the terrorists themselves). 

But one thing is clear to me:  Terror - like any complex military endeavor - requires planning, funding and logisitc support; at least the latter of which was certainly provided by residents of the village of Avrata.  They should be given a very limited opportunity to cooperate with the authorities, and if they refuse, they should be labeled an active part of the terror infrastructure... and dismantled accordingly.