The trouble is that this demand would mean separate buses (because the settlers absolutely reject being themselves delayed at the crossings), and separate buses are perceived as an outright manifestation of the apartheid rule Israel is accused of imposing in the West Bank. Moreover, claims voiced by settlers of dangers posed to Jewish women by the Palestinian laborers (claims which themselves emit a strong scent of racism), came up during preliminary discussions held ahead of the plan's implementation – and were reiterated over the past two days - in a way that pulls the rug out from under the security argument that Ya’alon was trying to promote.

The discussions over Ya’alon's plan began back in January 2014. To his mind, the plan was also motivated by a state comptroller’s report from the beginning of the decade that criticized the crossings' breeches. And yet, the Israel Defense Forces was not enthusiastic. The previous GOC Central Command major, Nitzan Alon, said he doubted stricter tabs on crossing registration of laborers would necessarily reduce security risks. The launching of the pilot program was put off by several months until the defense minister enforced it on the military this week. Meanwhile, already in October of last year - when there were intentions to launch a pilot at a single crossing - the Justice Ministry warned it would be problematic legally. Despite that, the pilot was launched this week, with the intent of commencing its implementation at four crossings.

The report on Tuesday night in Haaretz immediately engendered angry responses in Israel and particularly harsh responses abroad. The first to denounce the plan was actually a right-winger, former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who offered a fleshed-out attack on it via a tweet. The plan, he wrote, was mistaken and damaging both to the settlement project as a whole and to Israel’s status in the world. He called for it to be cancelled as soon as possible.

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The prime minister knew, in principle, about Ya’alon’s intentions to enforce the plan - but he was not informed that it would start this week. Netanyahu had made no attempt to intervene in order to freeze the plan. On Wednesday morning he was forced to recognize the fact that circumstances required his intervention. Netanyahu had a meeting on Wednesday with the European Union’s Foreign Minister Federika Mogherini, that was followed by a joint statement to the press - and the last thing he needed was to be publicly taken to task by the EU, along with a grilling by foreign reporters. Then came the abrupt U-turn. Netanyahu and Ya’alon spoke on the phone and Ya’alon’s media adviser issued a short statement to the press to the effect that the two "have agreed to suspend the pilot at the Judea and Samaria crossings.”