Football and other matters.

I can best describe myself as an occasional sports fan. You won’t find me in a stadium shouting advice to players and referees. I’m a living room spectator, with just a few minutes to watch a game at home from the comfort of my TV armchair, before switching channels. So, watching the FIFA Under-20 World Cup games held in Argentina, was decidedly ‘out of character.’  The fact that the Israel Under-20 squad stunned Brazil in a 3-2 win to advance to the semi-finals, explains why I stayed with the game. Anan Khalaili and Hamza Shibli, two Arab players, scored two of the Israeli team’s three goals

President Isaac Herzog called after the match to congratulate the players. "This shows that Jews and Arabs know how to work together and live together - well done!"

The Israeli team is due to play against Uruguay on Thursday. Who knows, ‘Inshallah’, we might win.

Win or lose, when our Arab footballers go home after the games in Argentina, they could possibly find that their home turf is less empathic,

Violent crime is widespread in Israel’s Arab sector.

Kipah Agaveria, a resident of Umm al Fahm, has first-hand knowledge of this phenomenon. Kipah is a very determined woman, not a common trait in a male-dominated society. In recent years seven members of her family have been murdered.

There are 28 orphans in her extended family. So far, no one has been charged with the murders.

Ms. Agaveria has demonstrated everywhere possible in her quest for justice.

President Isaac Herzog heard her complaint sympathetically, but couldn’t help her.

Kipah Agaveria on the cover of Yediot Ahronot's weekend supplement

On Tuesday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Arab Knesset members for the purpose of learning about violent crime in the Arab sector.

Simultaneously, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that he would appoint a special commissioner to handle crime and murders in the “Sector.” A spokesman for The Abraham Initiatives organisation noted a spike in violent crime among the country’s minority communities. Since January this year 83 Arab Israeli citizens, have been murdered.

Ben-Gvir intends to make the appointment within the next two weeks. The commissioner will be tasked with preparing and implementing operative plans to reduce crime in the Arab sector.

"I intend to put the fight against crime and murders in Arab society at the top of the priorities of the National Security Ministry," said Ben-Gvir. "I also intend to allocate enormous resources for this purpose by bringing police officers to the field, raising police salaries and establishing the National Guard."

I doubt if Kipah Agaveria or anyone else in Umm al Fahm, or anywhere else in Israel is counting on the minister’s avowed intentions.

Another topic reported by local and international news outlets concerned the killing of Staff Sgt. Ori Yitzhak Iluz, 20, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, 20, and Sgt. Lia Ben Nun, 19, by an Egyptian border policeman on Saturday.

The three were combat soldiers in the mixed-gender light infantry Bardelas and Caracal battalions, tasked with guarding the border.

According to the IDF’s initial probe, an Egyptian border policeman crossed into Israel through an emergency gate at the border early on Saturday morning.

The gate is used by the IDF to cross the border, when necessary, in coordination with the Egyptian army.

The 245-kilometre barrier, stretching from Eilat in the south to the Gaza–Israel border in the north, took three years to construct at an estimated cost of US$450 million, making it one of the largest projects in Israel's history.       Initial construction on the barrier began in 2010, and its original purpose was to curb the large influx of illegal migrants from African countries into Israel. However, in the wake of the Egyptian Crisis after the 2011 Revolution, Israel's southwestern border with Egypt experienced an increase in militant jihadist activity with the outbreak of the Sinai insurgency. In response, Israel upgraded the steel barrier adding cameras, radar, and motion detectors. The final upgrading was completed in December 2013.                                        

The old-timers at breakfast in the kibbutz dining room were only too willing to explain what went wrong at the two points of engagement along the border with Egypt.

I prefer to wait till the IDF publishes its official report. There will be no whitewashing or coverups. If there were operational failings the public has the right to know what happened. I’m confident they will be rectified.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the rare border shooting in which three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian security officer were killed, the leaders said in separate statements on Tuesday.

The Egyptian army initially claimed that the Egyptian border guard crossed the border in pursuit of suspects in a drug smuggling incident.  He crossed into Israel and walked about 150 metres to the guard post where Iluz and Ben Nun were stationed.

Ben Nun and Iluz had begun a 12-hour shift together at 9 p.m. on Friday night at the military post on the Egyptian border. At about 2:30 a.m. Israeli troops foiled an attempt to smuggle drugs over the border, about three kilometres north of Ben Nun and Luz’s position, seizing contraband worth $400,000.

At 3 a.m., the smuggling incident was concluded; and at 4:15 a.m., the troops called the guard post where Ben Nun and Iluz were positioned, they answered the call confirming that everything was okay.

There are frequent attempts to smuggle drugs from Egypt into Israel. Egyptian smugglers generally operate by throwing contraband over the border to Israeli Bedouins who then sell the drugs in Israel.  It’s thought that the Egyptian border guard crept up to the guard post and opened fire killing Ben Nun and Iluz, sometime between 6 and 7 a.m., After the soldiers failed to answer calls  on Saturday morning, shortly before their shift was due to end at 9 a.m., an officer went to the scene and discovered their dead bodies near the post.

The soldiers had not fired their weapons, indicating that they were caught completely by surprise by the attacker.

IDF patrols searched the area for the assailant and shortly after 11 a.m., an army drone identified the attacker hiding behind a rock formation some 1.5 kilometres from the border.

The attacker opened fire at a group of soldiers approaching the area fatally wounding Dahan. Several minutes later, another group of soldiers closed in on the Egyptian, killing him.

The IDF said the Egyptian army was cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation.

On Sunday, IDF chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi appointed Maj. Gen. Nimrod Aloni to lead an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack, with a focus on the “systemic” failures and the “perception of defence of peaceful borders.”

Meanwhile, the chief of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, and the commander of the 80th Division, Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, will probe the troops’ conduct during the attack. Toledano and Cohen’s investigation is set to be presented to Halevi within a week, the IDF said.

The Israel-Egypt border has been largely peaceful since the two countries signed a peace agreement in 1979, Israel’s first with an Arab state.

 

Take care.

 

Beni               8^th of June, 2023.