Playing with Fire: The Campaign That Sets the North Ablaze

Yair Kraus's report analyzes a political campaign by Religious Zionism activists in the Galilee, who placed about a thousand Israeli flags as a provocation. Finance Minister Smotrich promised to replicate the settlement model from the West Bank to the Negev and the Galilee. The article describes the security tensions in the area, criticizing the attempt to turn an existential struggle into a political battleground between right and left.

Yair Kraus's report on ynet analyzes a political campaign by activists of the Religious Zionism party in the Galilee, who placed about a thousand Israeli flags along the region's roads as a planned provocation. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich quickly declared that "the situation in the Galilee is like on October 6 on the Gaza border" and promised "to replicate the settlement revolution from Judea and Samaria to the Negev and the Galilee." The article describes the events of the "Dispute Encampment" near Majd al-Krum and Karmiel, where Jewish youths resembling "hilltop youth" from the West Bank set up encampments, some of which encroached on private land. In response, hundreds of local Arab protesters chanted "Long live Palestine" and "The Arab land is free," and Sheikh Raed Salah arrived to fuel the event. The article criticizes the political cynicism of Smotrich and his associates, who turn an existential struggle into a political battleground of right and left, ignoring local complexities and the fact that northern Arabs are equal-rights Israelis and partners in the economy and society.

Playing with Fire: The Campaign That Sets the North Ablaze