The killings over the weekend prove that collective punishment against the Palestinians leads to a situation where the army can’t protect Israelis

Two deadly terror attacks in two days in the Hebron area have turned the West Bank’s security picture upside down. Although the number of Palestinian attacks has declined sharply over the past nine months, the figures have no meaning in view of the two murders last week – that of a girl in her bed and a father of 10 in his car.

Once again it has become clear that the army is incapable of protecting Israelis who insist on settling in the West Bank everywhere at all times.

The failure over the weekend is first and foremost that of Benjamin Netanyahu and Avidgor Lieberman. The first is the prime minister who grandstands against giving in to terror and promises a hard line against it. The second is the defense minister who got where he is by ranting against Netanyahu’s incompetence. The assessment that risks were increasing toward the end of Ramadan, especially in the Hebron area, didn’t come out of nowhere, and the army and Shin Bet security service knew about the difficulties in obtaining intelligence.

The alarmed responses by Netanyahu, Lieberman, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and their colleagues over the weekend show that the Israeli right has lost its way. One of the right’s basic arguments is that the settlements increase security. This argument is clearly unfounded; it totally defies reality. A former deputy Mossad chief, Ram Ben Barak, was right when he said Friday on Channel 10 that terror is the price of Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank.

“We must say frankly that this is the price we pay for living in the midst of a hostile Arab population,” he said. “We must have leaders with the courage to do things differently from what we’ve done so far.