Losing the South: Crime and terror in the Bedouin diaspora cannot be defeated with weapons

Retired Major General Yitzhak Brik argues in an opinion piece that crime and terror in the Bedouin diaspora in the Negev cannot be solved by military force alone, and demands a fundamental treatment through education, infrastructure, and employment.

Retired Major General Yitzhak Brik argues in an opinion piece in Maariv that crime and terror in the Bedouin diaspora in the Negev cannot be defeated with weapons. Brik refers to the warning of Shin Bet head David Zini in the cabinet, who alerted to indications of military-style organizations and attempts to establish armed "terror battalions" in the Negev. Following this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed security forces to increase presence and enforcement in the south. Brik argues that a purely security approach is a lost war from the start, and the only solution is to regulate the treatment of the Bedouin population as equal citizens, through improving infrastructure, education, and employment. He emphasizes that the dropout of thousands of teenagers from schools creates a vacuum that fuels crime and terror, and warns of a situation of "a state within a state."