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Thursday, June 19, 2014

June 19, 2014: Israeli soldiers search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank city of Jenin. Since the operation to locate the teens began a week ago, about 280 Palestinians have been arrested, the military said, including 200 members of Hamas.AP

JERUSALEM –  Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinians during an arrest raid early Thursday in the most violent confrontation so far in the weeklong search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank.

Israel has blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the apparent abductions, without providing evidence. Israel has since launched a widespread crackdown on the militant Islamic group, arresting scores of members while conducting a feverish manhunt for the missing youths.

Hamas has praised the abduction of the teenagers, but has not claimed responsibility for it.

The three — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — disappeared late Thursday while hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries in the West Bank.

The military said about 300 Palestinians took to the streets when the soldiers entered Jenin at about 2 a.m. Some opened fire at the troops, others threw explosive devices or rocks at the soldiers. It said soldiers retaliated with live fire.

The military said 30 Palestinians were arrested in the overnight raid.

Nadir Irshaid, director of the Jenin hospital, said seven people are being treated for light injuries that he said were caused by rubber bullets and beatings.

According to several Jenin residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety, three Palestinians were arrested over the Jenin violence, including two members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Since the operation to locate the teens began a week ago, about 280 Palestinians have been arrested, the military said, including 200 members of Hamas.

The military also said that troops have searched about 100 locations and raided institutions it said are used by Hamas.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said Hamas is "paying a heavy price for the abduction."

Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist group due to its long history of attacks aimed at civilians. Hamas has abducted Israelis before.

There has been no sign of life from the missing teens or any ransom or other demands from their purported kidnappers.

U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro met with the Fraenkel family on Thursday and expressed Washington's "strong support" for Israeli efforts to find the teenagers. The U.S. has "a special responsibility in the case of an American citizen," Shapiro said.

Prayer vigils and round-the-clock media coverage have followed the teens' disappearance.

 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

New York Times

By  and 

JUNE 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — President Obama is considering a targeted, highly selective campaign of airstrikes against Sunni militants in Iraqsimilar to counterterrorism operations in Yemen, rather than the widespread bombardment of an air war, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

Such a campaign, most likely using drones, could last for a prolonged period, the official said. But it is not likely to begin for days or longer, and would hinge on the United States’ gathering adequate intelligence about the location of the militants, who are intermingled with the civilian population in Mosul, Tikrit and other cities north of Baghdad.

Even if the president were to order strikes, they would be far more limited in scope than the air campaign conducted during the Iraq war, this official said, because of the relatively small number of militants involved, the degree to which they are dispersed throughout militant-controlled parts of Iraq and fears that using bigger bombs would kill Sunni civilians.

At a meeting with his national security advisers at the White House on Monday evening, the official said, Mr. Obama was presented with a “sliding scale” of military options, which range from supplying the beleaguered Iraqi Army with additional advisers, intelligence and equipment to conducting strikes targeting members of the militant group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Much of the emphasis at the meeting, the official said, was on how to gather useful intelligence about the militants. They are not wearing uniforms or sleeping in barracks; and while there may be periodic convoys to strike, there are no columns of troops or vehicles.

Given all the hurdles to effective military action, Mr. Obama is continuing to emphasize a political solution to the crisis, the official said. Administration officials are prodding the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to take tangible steps to heal sectarian rifts with the country’s Sunnis and Kurds.

“This is not primarily a military challenge,” the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said to reporters on Air Force One, even as he acknowledged that “Iraq needs significantly more help to break the momentum of extremist groups.”

The United States is also exploring diplomatic options with Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran, though a senior official played down the extent of the coordination with Iran, after the deputy secretary of state, William J. Burns, briefly broached the crisis with his Iranian counterpart at nuclear negotiations in Vienna.

The limited scale of any military action may make it easier for Mr. Obama to sell to Congress and the public. The United States already targets suspected terrorists with drones and warplanes, either alone or with the local governments, in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan. It provides intelligence and airlift support for strikes in Mali.

Mr. Obama has invited the leaders of the House and Senate for a 3 p.m. meeting in the Oval Office. Taking part will be the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada; the minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky; the House speaker, John A. Boehner, and the House minority leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi.

The administration’s deliberations come amid signs that the sweeping militant advances of last week are slowing down, as the fighters reach the more heavily guarded gates of Baghdad.

“We’re seeing indications, certainly, that Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad are stiffening themselves,” said Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. “They’re being assisted by Shia militia members. And it certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital.”id signs that the sweeping militant advances of last week are slowing down, as the fighters reach the more heavily guarded gates of Baghdad.

“We’re seeing indications, certainly, that Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad are stiffening themselves,” said Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary. “They’re being assisted by Shia militia members. And it certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital.”

 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

BY DAN WILLIAMS

JERUSALEM Mon Jun 16, 2014

(Reuters) - Israel voiced concern on Monday at the prospect of its closest ally, Washington, cooperating with its what it considers its deadliest foe, Iran, to stave off a sectarian break-up of Iraq.

But, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Reuters, the United States and other major powers have pledged that any such cooperation would not set back their drive to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

The Obama administration said on Sunday it was considering talks with Iran about the Iraqi crisis. Iranian officials have voiced openness to working with the Americans in helping Baghdad repel a Sunni Muslim insurgency.

While deploring the "ungodly horror" of the bloodshed in Iraq, Steinitz said Iran should not be helped to extend its sway in Iran where fellow Shi'ite Muslims form the majority.

That, he said would give Tehran an arc of control running through Syria, where the Iranians back embattled President Bashar al-Assad, and on to Lebanon, where they have powerful allies in the Hezbollah militia.

"And we would especially not want for a situation to be created where, because both the United States and Iran support the government of (Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki, it softens the American positions on the issue which is most critical for the peace of the world, which is the Iranian nuclear issue," Steinitz said in an interview.

Even before the Iraq crisis, Israel was concerned about Iran's nuclear talks with Washington and five other powers, aimed at ensuring Iran is not developing atomic weapons capability.

Israel fears Tehran would be able to shake off international sanctions built up over the last decade.

Steinitz was cautiously optimistic that the negotiations would be unaffected by any international involvement in Iraq.

"We are troubled, but we have been made to understand by everyone - the Americans and the British and the French and the Germans - that a total separation will be enforced," he said.

Steinitz said such a separation of policies would be similar to Russia's participation alongside Western powers in the Iranian nuclear talks even as it spars with them over Ukraine.

Neither Washington nor Tehran, old adversaries with often contrary interests in the Middle East, have articulated how they might cooperate in Iraq.

Washington has no appetite to send troops back to the country it occupied for almost a decade, but the Obama administration has suggested it could carry out air strikes against insurgents.

Steinitz, who regularly confers with the United States about the Iranian nuclear negotiations and other regional issues, said he did not know what actions the Americans might take in Iraq.

Western diplomats suspect Iran has in the past sent some of its Revolutionary Guards, an elite force separate from the regular army, to train and advise the Iraqi army or allied militia. During its occupation of Iraq, the United States said some attacks on its forces had Iranian help.

Iran says it has never sent forces to Iraq but might now assist the Maliki government with advisers and weaponry.

Another Israeli security official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said deeper Iranian commitment in Iraq could make Tehran more accommodating in the nuclear talks as it might feel over-extended and reluctant to spark further crises.

"They would have to redirect resources, perhaps even pull their forces out of Syria to send to Iraq instead," the second Israeli official said. "Let them sink into that new quagmire."

Steinitz rejected this view, however, saying: "I would never look to solve one travesty with another travesty."

Monday, June 16, 2014

Operation 'Return Our Sons' Largest West Bank Incursion In More Than a Decade

 
Jun. 15, 2014 - 05:58PM   |  

By BARBARA OPALL-ROME   |  

 
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — Israel is beefing up boots on the ground in a West Bank incursion of paratroopers, infantry and special forces dubbed “Return Our Sons,” an operation aimed at recovering three teens abducted while hitchhiking on June 12.
As of late June 15, more than three Israel Defense Forces (IDF) brigades, Shin Bet security teams and elite units were operating primarily in the area south of Hebron, where officials suspect Hamas operatives associated with Hamas may be holding the captives.
With select reserve forces taking up positions elsewhere in so-called Area C where Israel maintains full control of the disputed territory, the operation marks the largest West Bank incursion since Israel’s 2002 Defensive Shield campaign, sources here say.
“It’s a substantial operation,” an IDF officer told Defense News of the more than three brigades of paratroopers, Nahal and Kfir infantry and elite units already deployed.
He declined to speculate on how long the operation would last if forces were unable to locate the missing Israelis, one of whom holds US citizenship.
The operational assumption is that the captives are still in the West Bank, but officials are not ruling out other scenarios.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said June 15 that Israel knew “for a fact” that Hamas operatives abducted the three teens. Nevertheless, he vowed to hold Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accountable for terror emanating from the territory now administered by his new consensus government backed by Hamas.
“Instead of abiding by his international obligation to disarm Hamas, President Abbas has chosen to make Hamas his partner. Israel holds the PA and President Abbas responsible for any attacks against Israel that emanate from Palestinian controlled territory,” Netanyahu warned.
Netanyahu rejected as “patently absurd” PA claims that it could not be expected to enforce security in an area under full Israeli control.
“When an attack takes place in Tel Aviv or in London or in New York ... the question is not where the attack takes place. The question is where it originated,” Netanyahu said.
“The kidnappers in this case set out from territory controlled by the PA, and the PA cannot absolve itself of its responsibility,” he insisted.
But contrary to Netanyahu’s threatened action against Abbas and the new consensus government in Ramallah, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israel to cooperate with PA authorities in the West Bank.
In a June 15 statement, Kerry said Washington was still “seeking details on the parties responsible for this despicable terrorist act, although many indications point to Hamas’ involvement.”
Kerry called for “full cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services” in locating and returning the youths.
And while coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces was continuing as of late June 15, defense sources here warned against escalating confrontation with Abbas and his Fatah-led forces.
An IDF officer noted that the PA security forces were the first to locate and report a burned out vehicle near Hebron thought to transport the Israeli teens.
“They’re doing what they can for their own interests. They realize the significance of their role in all this; the more supportive they are, the sooner we can declare an end to this operation,” a top Israeli officer told Defense News. 

 

 

Friday, June 13, 2014

Published 6/12/2014 on the DailyCaller.com

By: Brendan Bordelon

Troops from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are already operating in Iraq, fighting alongside Iraqi forces against a lightning military offensive driven by ultra-violent Sunni Islamists.

The Wall Street Journal reports that two battalions of Quds Forces, Iran’s foreign-deployed special forces who are already battling Islamist rebels across Syria, have been redeployed to the central Iraqi town of Tikrit — the birthplace of Saddam Hussein just 100 miles from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Representatives from the two Shi’ite Muslim governments confirmed that joint Iraqi-Iranian forces recaptured around 85 percent of Tikrit from Sunni fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which had rolled into town just a few hours previously.

The news of collaboration between a nominal American ally and a longtime archenemy comes as the Iraqi state unravels. On Tuesday, the northern city of Mosul — Iraq’s second-largest — fell to ISIS, sparking a massive humanitarian crisis as up to 500,000 people fled the bloodthirsty terror group.

Reports indicate that the Iraqi military abandoned their posts without firing a shot, leaving behind large caches of military equipment paid for with U.S. taxpayer dollars. ISIS has since repurposed this equipment for their ongoing sweep south to Baghdad.

The terror group is already alleged to have carried out mass beheadings of Shi’a “infidels” and has promised to march on the Shi’ite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala — likely prompting Iran to rush to the aid of their co-religionists.

In addition to deploying special forces to buttress a collapsing Iraqi military, Iran has fortified its western border and warned ISIS they will bomb any forces coming within 62 miles of its frontier.

Iraq has also requested U.S. assistance in the face of the implacable ISIS advance, reportedly requesting American airstrikes against armored terrorist columns.

President Obama says he “[doesn't] rule out anything” in terms of assistance to the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. And on Thursday morning Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Maliki, promising to “intensify and accelerate” U.S. support for Iraq’s security forces.

Neither the Iranian or American governments appear to have yet reacted to the fact that they are both supporting the Iraqi government — an odd turn for two nations locked in a cold war for the last 35 years.

 

Thursday, June 12, 2014
06/12/2014 17:08

88 US lawmakers send letter of "grave concern" to White House, warning that the new PA unity effort might "jeopardize direct negotiations with Israel to achieve a two-state solution."

 

Palestinian President Abbas meets with ministers of the unity government in Ramallah Photo: REUTERS

WASHINGTON -- The US Senate sent a united message of "grave concern" to US President Barack Obama on Thursday regarding the formation of a reconciliation government between Fatah and Hamas, and what the move might require of Congress in determining future US aid to the Palestinians.

88 senators from across party lines signed the letter sent to the White House, written by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME), which warns the new PA unity effort might "jeopardize direct negotiations with Israel to achieve a two-state solution."

"The recent formation of a Palestinian Authority unity government supported by Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that has never publicly accepted the Quartet principles, represents a serious setback to efforts to achieve peace," the senators wrote.

Citing recent appropriations law, which calls for an end to assistance to the PA should Hamas share power in the government or exert "undue influence" over its government, the Senate said the law is clear and warned the president that the chamber would reconsider future aid.

"Any assistance should only be provided when we have confidence that this new government is in full compliance with the restrictions contained in current law," the letter reads.

The State Department considers the current government an interim body, occupied by technocrats unaffiliated with either Palestinian party. Given those circumstances, the Obama administration plans on monitoring the political developments while continuing aid, officials say.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which helped circulate the letter through the halls of the Senate, "commended" the bipartisan group in a statement. They have publicly called for a debate on Capitol Hill on the continuation of aid to the PA.

 

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's parliament has chosen Reuven Rivlin, a stalwart in the ruling Likud Party, as the country's next president.

It chose Rivlin, a former parliament speaker and Cabinet minister, in a secret runoff ballot Tuesday, over longtime legislator Meir Sheetrit, by 63 to 53.

Rivlin now faces the difficult task of succeeding Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate who brought the position international prestige.

The job of the presidency is largely ceremonial. But Rivlin's political views could be a liability.

He opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, putting him at odds with the international community and even his own prime minister.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

Tuesday, June 10, 2014
06/09/2014 

Islamic Republic says negotiations over its disputed nuclear program may need to be extended by six months if July 20 deadline is not met.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Photo: Reuters

Senior American and Iranian officials spent over five hours together in private meetings in Geneva on Monday, jointly seeking a path forward in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program only six weeks before a self-imposed deadline on talks aimed at ending the crisis.

At the bilateral meeting, and in quotes placed in state-run Iranian media, Islamic Republic officials suggested world powers may have "no choice" but to extend the negotiations past the July 20 deadline. Talks have stalled over specific Western requests of Iran to dismantle key components of its vast nuclear infrastructure.

The US, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany agreed with Iran last fall to halt the crisis, and negotiate towards a comprehensive agreement to the longstanding impasse. International powers suspect Iran's nuclear program has military dimensions.

The interim deal reached last fall— formally known as the Joint Plan of Action— grants negotiators the ability to extend talks for six months after the July 20 deadline, should all parties consent.

"We hope to reach a final agreement (by July 20) but, if this doesn't happen, then we have no choice but to extend the Geneva deal for six more months while we continue negotiations," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said, according to Iran's state-run news agency.

"It's still too early to judge whether an extension will be needed," Araqchi added. "This hope still exists that we will be able to reach a final agreement by the end of the six months on July 20."

EU officials sat in on parts of Monday's meeting between the US and Iran, which will continue Tuesday morning. The US and Iran only restarted bilateral relations in 2013 after decades of silence between the two governments, prompted by the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

"We've always said that we would engage the Iranians bilaterally," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington on Monday. No press conferences were scheduled in Geneva after the meetings. "We also said that there was going to be an intensification of diplomatic efforts."

Harf said that the US continues to work towards the July 20 deadline in the hopes of reaching a comprehensive plan of action.

In Herzelia, Israeli officials weighed in on the intensifying nuclear talks, with some suggesting the Iranians are seriously interested in a diplomatic solution and with others warning against a "bad deal" for the international community.

"We are worried about the negotiations, but we are also hopeful," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told the 2014 Herzliya Conference on Monday.

An agreement that rids Iran of enriched uranium is obviously the best outcome, he said. But he is worried that the agreement that emerges would allow Iran to be a threshold nuclear state. “An international agreement that leaves Iran on the threshold of nuclear capability is worse than no agreement at all," Steinitz said.

"What is now at hand is not just the fate of Israel in the Middle East but the fate of the world," he said.

"When we speak to our allies, the Americans, we stress the main point is to prevent Iran from being on the threshold," he said.

If Iran is left on the threshold, he said, "Sooner or later Iran will reach nuclear capability, just like North Korea, which signed many agreements. Two or three years later, it broke through to nuclear weaponry. Today, we know it has 5-12 nuclear missiles."

A bad agreement would embolden other states to seek nuclear weapons without concern for sanctions, Steinitz said. "They will say, if it's possible for Iran to be considered legitimate and on the threshold of nuclear capability, why not give the same to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, or Turkey?"

"When we look at the political negotiations, we are not against it, but we watch with concern," he said. "Always, we remind them that they need to ask themselves the same question – what will the Middle East look like in 10 years. The future is going to arrive, quicker than you think."

Another Israeli official said that the government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is “concerned that the P5+1 is going to go and for a deal that allows Iran to freeze its program as a threshold nuclear state.”

“Freezing the Iranian nuclear program at a threshold level would be a historic mistake,” the official said.

With North Korea as an example of how negotiations can go awry the international community must ensure that all enriched uranium is removed from Iran.

“The international community must demand of Iran that it dismantle its military nuclear program, end all uranium enrichments, eliminate existing stock piles of of enriched uranium and end weaponization and it missile program,” the official said.

Iran can maintain a civilian nuclear program without any of these things, the Israeli official said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

 

Monday, June 9, 2014

By 

Mr. Netanyahu is correct that Hamas, the Iran-backed group that took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, is a violent, extremist organization committed to Israel’s destruction. Gaza militants regularly fire rockets into Israel; in 2012, Hamas fought an eight-day war with Israel.

It is also true that Fatah has renounced violence, recognized Israel and cooperated for years in administering the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Abbas has promised that the new government will abide by those principles, set out in 2006 by the United States and other major powers. To make it more palatable to Israel and the West, the new government, which is supposed to organize elections within six months, is composed of technocrats not affiliated with Hamas or other partisans.

Mr. Netanyahu has scoffed at that distinction — and some skepticism is warranted. While Hamas cannot simply be wished away, the United States and other countries that consider Hamas a terrorist group may find it impossible to continue aiding the Palestinians if Hamas plays a more pronounced role.

The reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas is risky for Fatah, but Mr. Abbas apparently felt he had nothing to lose. Nine months of American-mediated peace talks with Israel produced no progress. Nearing retirement, at age 79, he saw value in trying to reunite the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after seven years of bitter division.

This is a long shot, since previous reconciliation efforts have quickly collapsed, and there are the inescapable facts of Hamas’s hatred of Israel and its heavily armed militia. Given that Mr. Abbas’s call for Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza within six months could bring Hamas to power, this new government could also be Mr. Abbas’s way to make trouble for Mr. Netanyahu.

Israel’s position is not so clear-cut. Even as Mr. Netanyahu demanded that the United States cut off aid to the new government, Israel continued to send tax remittances to the Palestinian Authority. And Mr. Netanyahu is not above negotiating with Hamas himself. In 2011, he traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas for five years. In 2012, working through the United States and Egypt, he negotiated a cease-fire with Hamas that ended a brief war.

Mr. Netanyahu’s failure to persuade the international community not to recognize the new government reflects a growing breach between Israel and its most important allies. On Monday, the United States announced plans to work with and fund the unity government; it typically gives the Palestinians about $500 million annually. The European Union, another major donor, and the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also declared their support. China, India and Russia welcomed the unity government, despite Israel’s efforts to build closer ties with all three.

Many experts say that if there is ever to be an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, admittedly a distant dream at this point, the Palestinians must be united. But the United States has to be careful to somehow distinguish between its support for the new government and an endorsement of Hamas and its violent, hateful behavior. To have some hope of doing that, the United States and Europe must continue to insist that Mr. Abbas stick to his promises and not allow Hamas to get the upper hand.

 

 

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Tel Aviv University/IDI poll finds 49% of Israeli Jews and 72% of Israeli Arabs disagree with idea that Israel should annex areas important to it for settlement and security in the West Bank.

 

West Bank settlement of Maale Efrayim in the Jordan Valley. 
Half of Israeli Jews oppose annexing parts of the West Bank, but almost the same amount would back such a move, according to the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University's monthly Peace Index Poll, published Thursday.
 
The poll showed 49 percent of Israeli Jews and 72% of Israeli Arabs disagree with the idea that "Israel should officially annex the areas that are important to it for settlement and security in Judea & Samaria," but 43% of Israeli Jews and 18% of Israeli Arabs agreed with the statement.
 
Over half (55%) of those who advocate annexation self-identified as right-wing, while 33% said they're centrist and 22% were on the left.
 
Most Israeli Jews (60%) oppose unilateral withdrawal from substantial parts of the West Bank, while 25% supported it. The opposite trend exists with Israeli Arabs; 68% favor it and 21% oppose. Of those who favor unilateral withdrawal, 77% were left-wing.
 
Despite indications that the US blames Israel for failed peace talks, 64% of Israelis do not think the US is scaling back its support for Israel. Half of Israelis (51%) believe that Israel would not be able to withstand a significant reduction of US support, but 70% of right-wing Israelis think the opposite.
 
The vast majority of Israelis do not sympathize with "price tag" attacks, but the percentage opposing them varies depending on what minority they target: 73% against churches, 67% against mosques, 64% against the property of Israeli Arabs and 59% against Palestinian property in the West Bank.
 
Most Israeli Jews (67%) believe that the police is making a real effort apprehend the perpetrators of "price tag" crimes, but less than half of Israeli Arabs (48%) agree.
 
As for ongoing debates on the defense budget, 48% of Israelis agree with the Finance Ministry that the defense budget was recently increased and any further expansion would cut into welfare services.
 
A third of Israelis (35%) agree with the Defense Ministry that increases are needed because of the threats Israeli faces.
 
The survey was conducted last week, polling 605 respondents who constitute a representative sample of the adult population of Israel. The margin of error is 4.1%.