Naftali Bennett calls for treating illegal arms smuggling as national security threat rather than criminal matter, proposes military-led enforcement operations
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the community of Karmit on Sunday and issued a stark warning about the increase of illegal weapons throughout Israel.
Speaking to residents, Bennett described the situation as urgent. "As we stand here today, hundreds of thousands of illegal firearms are threatening the security of Israeli citizens. This is a ticking bomb," he said. "We will define the failure to stop weapons smuggling as terrorism—and fight it the way we combat terror."
Bennett argued that a fundamental shift in approach is needed. "Massive quantities of illegal weapons endanger all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike," he said. "To fix this requires many actions, but they all begin with one leadership decision: Stop treating the failure to stop illegal weapons smuggling as a criminal problem, and define it as a national security threat, terrorism in every sense."
He criticized the current framework as inadequate. "Anyone who treats this as a criminal incident is trapped in a flawed conception. We will break that conception and define illegal weapons as terrorism. We have no time to waste. Israel doesn't need more staff work or more advisory committees. What's required is an aggressive operational approach combining different forces, and a clear action plan."
Bennett outlined a specific enforcement proposal he called a "closure and disruption protocol." Under his plan, any intelligence indication from the Shin Bet security service, military intelligence, or Israel Police regarding a compound, area, neighborhood, home, or smuggling route would trigger immediate action. "The area will be declared a closed security-police zone. We'll send in the IDF, Shin Bet, Border Police, and Israel Police, confiscate the illegal weapons, and the criminals will be punished as terror operatives," he pledged.
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