The next Seventh of October could be socio-economic

It seems to me that there is no country in the world, except for failed states, that would notify its citizens to avoid driving on a central road in its territory for fear of stone-throwing. And yet, this is the reality in the Negev. A few days ago, the police informed the residents of the Negev that they should not travel on Route 310, a lateral road in the northern Negev that connects the Hanasi Junction and Lehavim Junction and is considered a vital transportation artery in the southern part of the country. This warning became, in my eyes and the eyes of many others, a symbol of systemic madness, in which the state itself, which is supposed to provide security to its citizens, warns them against the space under its own control.

This is neither a security anecdote nor a localized malfunction. It is a clear symptom of the loss of governance in the Negev, for which the state is directly responsible. Ultimately, the basic contract between a state and its citizens is protection, and the state has failed in this completely. Even worse—the local failure translates into a national danger. When the state retreats from the Negev in a civic sense, the vacuum is filled quickly. Crime organizations and nationalist elements integrate with each other, the boundaries between them blur, and the civic space becomes a hostile arena.

All these phenomena are seeping northward. The volume of vehicle thefts in Gush Dan, for example, rose by 47%, illustrating this trend. Violence and "protection" (extortion) in industrial areas in the Center are other examples. These are not disconnected phenomena. They are a direct result of the collapse of enforcement and governance systems in the periphery, and the Center cannot afford to remain indifferent to this.

But there is still one point of light in this theater of the absurd—finally, this reality is being exposed to the general public in the center of the country. After years of working to communicate the unbearable situation in the Negev and not always succeeding, reality came and knocked on the door.

Now everyone is exposed to the disturbing fact that the Negev and the North suffer from nationalist violence, crime, "protection," the presence of illegal weapons—especially in Bedouin settlements in the Negev—whose sources include both the smuggling of munitions across the border and, to the point of absurdity, thefts of weapons from IDF bases—and illegal construction in the Bedouin diaspora.

This situation reflects a broad and ongoing management failure in the handling of internal affairs in the State of Israel. It stands in stark contrast to the external front, where impressive achievements have been recorded since the "Iron Swords" war began. While in the management of foreign and security affairs, Israel demonstrates planning and strategic thinking, along with boldness and innovation, in the management of internal affairs, mediocrity, not to say wretchedness, rules. There is no long-term policy, no coordination between government ministries, and no recognition that civic governance is a security component for all intents and purposes.

The ongoing neglect of the periphery, in general, and the Negev, in particular, is not an act of fate and does not result solely from budgetary constraints—certainly not in a country whose economy is flourishing and growing, like Israel. This is the offspring of a distorted governmental structure and corrupt political conduct.

In a parenthetical note, according to the International Monetary Fund's updated forecast, Israel's GDP in current dollars rose over the past year to 611 billion dollars, an impressive increase of 12.7% compared with 2024. These figures place Israel in the respectable 27th place out of 191 countries in the world.

So what is happening here? At the top of the pyramid, a binary power structure of "0 or 1" has been created. If the Prime Minister does not deal personally and directly with a certain issue, it simply does not exist on the national priority list. The political system has converged into a state where one leader totally controls the mechanisms of government, but his attention and focus are directed almost exclusively to complex and challenging foreign and security issues. In a reality where there is no real delegation of authority, the burning internal affairs of the Negev and the North remain outside the range of government vision, with no factor to integrate and move them forward.

Since the ministers also do not excel, to put it mildly, in their performance, a situation arises in which the affairs of their offices are not properly handled. This is a flawed governmental situation in which the Prime Minister has a great deal of authority and power, but the ministers themselves do not function as expected of them.

Precisely against this background, the activity of the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, stands out. One can debate his worldview, but one cannot ignore the fact that he acts in a focused, systematic, and calculated manner to advance the interests of Judea and Samaria. He harnesses his political power and the governmental machinery to advance a clear vision. As one who lives and breathes the Negev, I am forced to say with pain—I wish we had such a man.

The Negev desperately needs a political figure with the same specific weight, who knows how to fight for the home with the same governmental determination, and to turn the development of the country's periphery into a national mission that does not depend solely on whether the Prime Minister has time to turn to it between one security crisis and another.

As a direct result of these structural flaws, the situation in the far periphery is worsening. While Tel Aviv functions almost as an autonomous entity—an economically, socially, and culturally independent one that can flourish even without active government involvement—the periphery does not enjoy this privilege.

The Negev and the Galilee are not independent islands; they depend absolutely on government policy and the distribution of resources. Thus, a situation arises in which the Center, to which private capital, prestigious employment, and the high-tech industry naturally flow, continues to soar—while the periphery sinks. Without a directing hand and without ministers who see the promotion of the region as a life mission, the gap between the "State of Tel Aviv" and the rest of the country deepens and actually endangers the national security of the entire country.

This situation is likely to have far-reaching political implications, but it is doubtful whether the activists of the Likud and the coalition are aware of them.

Israeli history teaches that no rule lasts forever: just as the Labor movement failed to understand in 1977 that it was about to lose power, it is liable to happen now as well. Then, too, the writing was on the wall, but blindness and excessive self-belief ruled the day.

It is worth reminding those who have forgotten that the Labor movement ruled the settlement and the state with an iron hand for nearly five decades until the upheaval. Today, the Likud has been in power, almost continuously, for a similar period. Whoever believes that the periphery will continue to grant unlimited credit to a system that ignores it suffers from the same historical blindness that struck the state's leadership on the eve of that upheaval.

The public on the periphery is indeed mostly right-wing, and its emotional connection to the Likud movement—whose roots go back to the days of Menachem Begin—is deep and long-standing. But even the strongest loyalty has a breaking point. The voter in the Negev may find himself on the day of reckoning, saying to himself the simple and painful truth: "I am indeed a man of the Right, but this government is harming my home. In my personal security, in the education of my children, in the future of my livelihood." At the moment when the feeling of "I've had enough" overcomes the historical sentiment, the political map changes beyond recognition. When the house is on fire, party affiliation becomes a luxury that the resident on the periphery can no longer afford.