Difficult Months Ahead: Why Israel is Afraid of the Lions’ Den

By Ramzy Baroud

This headline within the Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Publish, solely tells a part of the story: “The Lions’ Den, Different Palestinian Teams are Infinite Headache for Israel, PA.”

It’s true that each the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian Authority are equally fearful concerning the prospect of a widespread armed revolt within the Occupied West Financial institution, and that the newly fashioned Nablus-based brigade, the Lions’ Den, is the epicenter of this youth-led motion.

Nevertheless, the rising armed resistance within the West Financial institution is inflicting greater than a mere ‘headache’ for Tel Aviv and Ramallah. If this phenomenon continues to develop, it may threaten the very existence of the PA, whereas inserting Israel earlier than its most tough alternative for the reason that invasion of main Palestinian West Financial institution cities in 2002.

Although Israeli navy commanders proceed to undermine the facility of the newly fashioned group, they appear to have no clear concept concerning its roots, affect and future influence.

In a latest interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli Protection Minister Benny Gantz claimed that the Lions’ Den is a “group of 30 members”, who will ultimately be reached and eradicated. “We are going to lay our arms on the terrorists,” he declared.

The Lions’ Den, nevertheless, will not be an remoted case, however half of a bigger phenomenon that features the Nablus Brigades, the Jenin Brigades and different teams, that are situated principally within the northern West Financial institution.

The group, together with different armed Palestinian navy models, has been energetic in responding to the killing of Palestinians, together with youngsters, elders, and, on October 14, even a Palestinian physician, Abdullah Abu al-Teen, who succumbed to his wounds in Jenin. Based on the Palestinian Ministry of Well being, over 170 Palestinians have been killed within the West Financial institution and Gaza, for the reason that starting of the 12 months.

The Palestinian response included the killing of two Israeli troopers, one in Shuafat on October 8, and the opposite close to Nablus on October 11.

Following the Shuafat assault, Israel fully sealed the Shuafat refugee camp as a type of collective punishment, just like latest sieges on Jenin and different Palestinian cities.

Citing Israel’s Hebrew media, the Palestinian Arabic day by day Al Quds reported that the Israeli navy will focus its operations within the coming weeks on focusing on the Lions’ Den. Hundreds extra Israeli occupation troopers are more likely to be deployed within the West Financial institution for the upcoming battle.

It’s tough to think about that Israel would mobilize a lot of its military to battle 30 Palestinian fighters in Nablus. However not solely Israel, the PA, too, is extremely involved.

The Authority has tried however did not entice the fighters by providing them a give up ‘deal’, the place they offer up their arms and be part of the PA forces. Such offers have been provided up to now to fighters belonging to Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, with blended levels of success.

This time round, the technique didn’t work. The group rejected the PA’s overtures, compelling the Fatah-affiliated governor of Nablus, Ibrahim Ramadan, to assault the moms of the fighters by calling them ‘deviant’ for “sending their sons to commit suicide.” Ramadan’s language, which is analogous to language utilized by Israeli and pro-Israel people of their depiction of Palestinian society, highlights the huge schisms between the PA’s political discourse and people of extraordinary Palestinians.

Not solely is the PA dropping grasp of the narrative, additionally it is dropping no matter vestiges of management it has left within the West Financial institution, particularly in Nablus and Jenin.

A senior Palestinian official instructed the Media Line that the Palestinian “road doesn’t belief us anymore”, as they “view us as an extension of Israel.” True, however this lack of belief has been within the making for years.

The ‘Unity Intifada‘ of Might 2021, nevertheless, served as a significant turning level within the relationship between the PA and Palestinians. The rise of the Lions’ Den and different Palestinian armed teams are however just a few manifestations of the dramatic adjustments underway within the West Financial institution.

Certainly, the West Financial institution is altering. A brand new technology that has little or no reminiscence of the Second Intifada (2000-2005), had not skilled the Israeli invasion then however grew up below occupation and apartheid, feeding on the reminiscences of the resistance in Jenin, Nablus and Hebron.

Judging by their political discourse, chants and symbols, this technology is fed up with the crippling and infrequently superficial divisions of Palestinians amongst factions, ideologies and areas. In truth, the newly established brigades, together with the Lions’ Den, are believed to be multi-factional teams bringing, for the primary time, fighters from Hamas, Fatah and others right into a single platform. This explains the favored enthusiasm and lack of suspicion amongst extraordinary Palestinians of the brand new fighters.

For instance, Saed al-Kuni, a Palestinian fighter who was just lately killed by Israeli troopers in an ambush on the outskirts of Nablus, was a member of the Lions’ Den. Some have claimed that al-Kuni was a number one member of Fatah’s Brigades, and others say he was a widely known Hamas fighter.

This lack of certainty concerning the political id of killed fighters is pretty distinctive to Palestinian society, at the very least for the reason that institution of the PA in 1994.

Expectedly, Israel will do what it all the time does: amassing extra occupation troops, attacking, assassinating, crushing protests and laying sieges on rebellious cities and refugee camps. What they fail to grasp, at the very least for now, is that the rising rise up within the West Financial institution will not be generated by just a few fighters in Nablus and some extra in Jenin, however is the end result of a very common sentiment.

In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, translated by Al-Quds, an Israeli commander described what he has witnessed in Jenin throughout a raid:

“Once we enter (Jenin), armed fighters and stone throwers await us in each nook. Everybody takes half. You take a look at an outdated man … and also you surprise, will he throw stones? And he does. As soon as, I noticed an individual who had nothing to throw (on us). He rushed to his automobile, grabbed a milk carton and he threw it on us.”

Palestinians are merely fed up with the Israeli occupation and with their collaborating management. They’re able to put all of it on the road, the truth is, in Jenin and Nablus, they have already got. The approaching weeks and months are essential for the way forward for the West Financial institution, and, the truth is, for all Palestinians.

– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He’s the creator of six books. His newest e-book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is “Our Imaginative and prescient for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Communicate out”. Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Analysis Fellow on the Heart for Islam and World Affairs (CIGA). His web site is www.ramzybaroud.web