PELONI: As previously promised, Arlene Kushner returns to share her further insights on the election topics at stake in Tuesday’s coming election.
Arlene Kushner | October 25, 2026
PM Netanyahu casts vote on Nov. 1, 2022. Screengrab via Youtube.
My intention here is to examine the primary issues in the election.
But I must first report a terror attack that took place on Friday morning, when two Arabs approached Yehuda Junction outside of Hebron in Judea by car. They were armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun. When they saw that a temporary checkpoint was being maintained at the Junction, they realized that they would not be able to get past it to reach route 35.
They exited their car and, utilizing nearby buildings as cover, began shooting at the troops from the Ari Battalion of the Home Front Command’s Search and Rescue Brigade who were manning the checkpoint. The gunbattle ensued for a full 20 minutes.
In the course of the battle, two soldiers. Staff Sgt. Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, a squad commander (on the left below), and Sgt. Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, a combat soldier, were killed. May their memory be for a blessing. Three others were wounded, one moderately and two lightly.
Screengrab via Youtube.
The two terrorists, both from the same family in Hebron, were eliminated. The IDF subsequently found a large quantity of ammunition in the terrorists’ car; their intention was to initiate a major attack on civilians, but the presence of the checkpoint thwarted their plans.
Hamas later claimed credit for the attack.
Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately ordered the full cordoning off of the cities of Hebron and nearby Halhul:
“We are going to implement the successful and aggressive model that we used in the refugee camps, which are essentially terrorist strongholds,” he said.
“That is exactly what we will do here, inside [the] neighborhood in Hebron from which the terrorists came. We will evacuate the residents, we will go house to house, remove the weapons there, and all terrorist infrastructure will be dealt with and destroyed….“We will consider extending this model to other cities as well.”
It must be emphasized that terrorists, even if not officially affiliated with a terror organization as these two were, do not actually operate alone. Almost always, they have a support group, likely involving family members but not necessarily limited to them. In a situation such as this one, it would be appropriate to assume that there is an enclave of terrorists and terror-supporters associated with the terrorists. In some of the reports on the attack, investigation of “other suspects” is alluded to.
In addition to the cordoning off of Hebron, it was reported that there would be a full closure on all of Judea & Samaria. I had been under the impression that there was already a full closure to be sustained until after the election on Tuesday. Apparently it will be maintained now with tighter constraints.
And with this, I segue to a capsule review of the major issues facing us as we head into elections. I will not examine the position of each major party, but, rather, will consider the parameters of the issues.
As I wrote about terrorism above, I will begin here with security issues, which are complex and almost inevitably involve political issues. Taken as a whole, security is THE major issue, touching upon or overshadowing much else.
The primary concern, of course, is Iran and our ability to take down the regime. While weakened, the regime has shown surprising resilience: It continues to augment its ballistic missile cache and work towards the development of nuclear capacity.
Trump’s recent endorsement of Netanyahu brought to the fore considerations of another go-round with the US and Israel acting together. Obviously there are matters that must be resolved at the highest (confidential) levels of government and cannot be rendered part of public policy. But there are questions that hang over us. Is it a given that we will attack Iran again with the goal of bringing down the regime? What of timing? Are we dependent upon Trump’s decision in the matter? Might we act alone?
Iran’s support for its major proxies – Hamas, Hezbollah – has diminished, but remains of concern as well.
Judea & Samaria, which is today home to over half-a-million Jews, harbors numerous active terror enclaves, notably in the areas of Nablus (Shechem), Jenin, Ramallah, Hebron, and Tulkarm. These enclaves involve Hamas and other groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Additionally in recent years independent militia groups have emerged.
Frequently there are Israeli military counter-terror operations into these areas, with arrests and seizure of weaponry; intelligence forces track terror activity. But there is a great deal more yet to be done.
Complicating the situation is the presence of the Palestinian Authority in Judea & Samaria. It operates in Areas A (full control) and B (civil control) by virtue of the Oslo Accords and is deemed legitimate internationally. Area A encompasses major cities such as Nablus and Jenin.
The reality, however, is that the PA is a terror-supporting group and a risk to Israel. There was major PA support for the massacre of October 7. (They backed down when charges of genocide emerged, saying the attack was proper in principle as an act of resistance but did not lead to a good end.) PA schools continue to teach hatred of Jews, support for terrorists is provided via Pay for Slay, and incitement against Israel is routine.
Of greatest concern is the fact that the PA now has some 70,000 trained and armed forces – ostensibly security forces, while Oslo permitted only a 12,000 person police force. There have been incidents of PA security personnel turning their guns on Israelis; concern exists that an October 7-type invasion into Israel would be possible from Judea & Samaria and indeed might be in the planning.
For a major report on this issue by Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, see:
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-903193
Concerns about the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority stare us in the face. Not only its existence, actually, but the persistence of many in pushing for its transformation to a state. It is promoted under the rubric of a “two-state solution,” which ignores the fact that the Palestinian Authority openly embraces the concept of “from the river to the sea,” which means full Arab control of all of Israel. Except on the far left, there is no party in Israel that endorses “two-states,” but the diplomatic battles against this are on-going and of major importance.
And then there is the very real question of Israel’s application of sovereignty to some (Area C?), or all, of Judea & Samaria. Here there are distinct differences in the positions of various parties. Is it time to declare Oslo – a signed agreement, not law – null and void? What happens to the Palestinian Arabs living in that area? I mention this here as an issue which Israel must confront but hope to return to this for a closer look. Time is of the essence in reaching resolution here, for the PA continues to encroach into Area C via illegal building: the goal is a de facto state.
We contend with terrorism to our east in Judea & Samaria, but then to our west, in Gaza, we continue to face issues of terrorism, as well. Hamas has not surrendered its weapons and is not going to demilitarize voluntarily. It is reorganizing and strengthening within the roughly 40% of Gaza it still controls, with the stated goal of doing October 7 again and again. It must be taken down and only the IDF can do this. But we are prevented from acting decisively.
The Board of Peace, set in place by President Trump and nominally the governing entity in Gaza, is eager to begin reconstruction in the IDF-controlled section of Gaza, in spite of the failure to first secure demilitarization. This remains a problematic situation, and what I see is a consortium of nations eager to be done with the whole matter and proceed with rebuilding Gaza as if this will resolve remaining issues. Enormous vigilance and strength will be required of our government going forward.
“US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee questioned whether the Board of Peace would be able to carry out US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza without additional planning and resources from the US government, according to a cable obtained by Politico.
“The cable…detailed Huckabee’s concerns about whether the Board of Peace and the US Embassy in Jerusalem had enough personnel to oversee plans to disarm Hamas and begin reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.”
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-912630
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There are, of course, a host of additional issues with which our next government will have to cope. There are diplomatic matters, with regard to building solid relationships with new allies, as our relationship with some nations in the west (France a prime example) are severely weakened.
And there is work to be done to improve Israel’s image internationally – no easy task. A significant problem has been the libelous charge of major “settler violence,” which merits further examination in a future posting. I provide here a link to a very informative piece on the issue by Melanie Phillips, who calls “settler violence” a “malevolently distorted canard.”
https://www.jns.org/opinion/column/melanie-phillips/the-war-against-the-jews-in-judea-and-samaria
And there is the matter of judicial reform: unfinished business.
In closing I want to address two related matters that are particularly distressing. One is the “anyone but Bibi” cry on the left, which is fueled by an irrational antipathy to our prime minister. On the face of it, it is a ludicrous cry, not serious. Anyone? But if that truly cannot be, then what?
Many have the impression that this position was motivated by our prime minister’s failures regarding October 7, and so I will remind my readers that this was the cry of the left-leaning Kaplanists on the street during the debate about judicial reform, well before the Hamas attack.
But then what of Netanyahu’s “failure” with regard to October 7? Those firmly opposed to him would have it that his failure consisted, first, of a lack of necessary awareness of what was about to happen with the Hamas attack, and then, most damningly, that he did not call out the armed forces in full strength when alerted to the attack at 6:30 AM that day.
I offer here my take on the situation:
Our government failed. There is no question about it. Contemplating this is extraordinarily painful. Our intelligence should have alerted our military to the possibility of attack, and we should have been prepared.
The country, most regrettably, was in the thrall of a vision of a Hamas that was contained, content with assistance it was receiving, lacking any desire for major military confrontation. The situation was considered under control.
But how could we have been this mistaken? We might ask, similarly, how the government of Israel in the 90s could have been so deluded as to imagine that peace with the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat was possible. And yet we acted as if it were possible, and we are still paying the price for that.
We do not yet have full answers with regard to October 7, although the cry for an investigation persists. Whether it will ever be possible to secure those answers remains doubtful to me, for the situation has become thoroughly politicized. Even the issue of who would do the investigating becomes contentious.
There have been credible accounts of double agents (our agents turned by Hamas) working inside of Gaza who carried reports of a pacific Hamas that were intended to pacify us. There are also reports of a deep state within our government that worked against our best interests. While my Zionist self wants to discount such reports, I have heard enough to know that this is definitely a possibility: elements within our system, opposed to our victory against Hamas for whatever reasons, may have worked to prevent that victory.
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To point a finger at Bibi Netanyahu and charge him with the failure of October 7 is both simplistic and unrealistic. It is also grossly unfair – a bid to take him down. In some large measure, he received information from intelligence and military forces and acted accordingly.
Perhaps the most important task of our next government, whatever its composition, is not trying to figure out what happened, but rather putting in place policies and actions that protect us going forward:
We must rely upon ourselves, establishing bonds with allies but trusting ourselves first and foremost. Manufacturing our own weaponry. Knowing at all times how to say NO! Protecting our citizens by refusing to allow enemies or potential enemies to have close proximity to our borders – thus our presence on the Syrian side of Har Hermon and our presence in south Lebanon.
We require a government that knows how to project strength and will hesitate to establish bonds that offer promises of friendship but would weaken us. Our government must recognize how great is our value with regard to intelligence, weaponry, medical and agricultural advancement, etc. – value that will ultimately bring Israel to a place of absolute predominance in the Middle East.
I close then by sharing one last article, this by Jonathan Pollard. He addresses the “orchestrated storm of unconfirmed allegations surrounding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions before and after the October 7 attacks [that have] devolved into a transparent exercise in political warfare.”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-911458
I will return after the election.
At that time I will not only begin to look at results, I will consider a major issue that I have not incorporated in the above discussion: the question of requiring hareidim (ultra-Orthodox) to serve in the army, which in the main they do not. This is an enormously contentious issue with differing opinions espoused by different parties.
I see it as a complex issue, not black and white, and hope to provide some insights. Here I simply wish to call attention of readers to the fact that this is, without a doubt, a factor in the election.
Please, pray – pray hard!! – for the safety of Israel and for election results that will bring us blessings.
©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
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