IDF Prepares to Call Up Reserves

The IDF prepares for the possibility of PA Arab riots, and will call up reserves probably Sunday, September 18.
By Chana Ya'ar
First Publish: 9/15/2011, 9:04 AM

The Israel Defense Forces are preparing for the possibility of Palestinian Authority Arab riots beginning September 20, when the PA will bring its statehood bid to the United Nations.

Israel's military will begin to call up its reserves, probably starting this Sunday, September 18, sources said Thursday.

Arutz Sheva has been informed that the residents of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria have warned the Arab residents of PA-controlled areas that if they approach the security fences surrounding their towns, the response will be “unequivocal.”

The warning comes in the wake of threats by PA Arabs to march on Israeli communities in the regions on September 20, the day PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas intends to ask the United Nations General Assembly to recognize the entity as a new Arab country, and grant it membership within the ranks.

Such a move would abrogate all prior agreements with Israel – such as the 1993 Oslo Accords, and the 2003 Roadmap Plan – that any final status deal would be reached through a negotiated settlement, and would come after all incitement against the Jewish State had been squelched in the PA.

A number of deadly terrorist attacks have been carried out on Jewish towns in the regions over the past year, the worst of which was the massacre of a family in the Samaria town of Itamar on a Friday night after the Sabbath meal.

In March, two teenage PA Arab terrorists slashed and stabbed to death Rabbi Udi Fogel, his wife Ruth and three of their six children, including a 3-month-old infant, while they were sleeping in their beds. Their 12-year-old daughter came home to find the carnage after a pleasant evening spent with friends at a Sabbath youth event. Her two very young brothers had by a miracle also survived.

In May, two PA Arab terrorists were caught as they made their way toward the Judean Jewish town of Otniel on a similar “mission.”

Over the past month, rock attacks have begun to escalate once more on the Judea-Samaria Highway, known to locals as Route 60. The road runs from Samaria in the north, past Jerusalem and through Judea down to the Tel Arad-Be'er Sheva area in the south.