Netanyahu’s remarks come after pressure by ministers. In inner cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Lieberman barred army officers from answering Minister Bennett’s questions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that, in wake of the recent attacks, the government will allocate additional aid to fortify the settlements in the West Bank.
“We will make a special effort to strengthen the communities and will propose a special plan for Kiryat Arba at the next cabinet meeting,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, adding, that he has instructed all government ministries to do their part to help West Bank settlements.
Haaretz has learned that Netanyahu’s remarks on Sunday morning came after some of the ministers pressured Netanyahu during Saturday’s emergency security cabinet meeting. The ministers called for a massive round of construction in the settlements in response to recent terror attacks. Netanyahu promised them that he will examine the issue. Just two weeks ago, the cabinet approved a special allocation of 82 million shekels ($21.3 million) to West Bank settlements, citing security concerns.
On Friday, following the Thursday attack in Kiryat Arba, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the reopening of a tender to build 42 housing units in Kiryat Arba. The tender was published some 18 months ago, but was suspended when no bids were received. Ahead of the security cabinet meeting on Saturday, figures close to Education Minister Naftali Bennett and other members of his Habayit Hayehudi party derided the measure as “recycling an old decision from a year and a half ago.”
During Saturday’s security cabinet meeting, Lieberman and Bennett clashed verbally. At one point, after Bennett asked for details from army officers attending the meeting, Lieberman ordered the officers not to reply and to move to the next item on the agenda. Senior officials privy to the meeting said Netanyahu sided with Lieberman. The confrontation between Lieberman and Bennett was first reported by Israel’s Channel 2.
The inner cabinet meeting concluded after 2 A.M., some four and a half hours after it began. Senior officials in Jerusalem said that the ministers decided that steps will be taken to block allowances paid to the families of assailants by the Palestinian Authority, staring with the family of the assailant in Thursday’s attack in Kiryat Arba. It was also decided to immediately investigate relatives of Palestinian attackers who express support for their actions. The ministers on the panel also resolved to accelerate the demolition of hundreds of buildings erected without permits by Palestinians in parts of the West Bank classified as Area C, which are under complete Israeli control, starting with the Southern Hebron Hills, where the Kiryat Arba assailant resided.
“We are in a protracted fight against terrorism,” Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting on Sunday. “This struggle has ups and downs. We are using various means, including aggressive measures that we have not used in the past. This includes cordoning off the entire Hebron district, 700,000 people; revoking work permits from Bani Naim, the village six terrorists have had come from; a massive reinforcement of two battalion, with emphasis on securing the roads; automatically investigating all family members of murderers and terrorists and their arrest as per their involvement…. We are giving full backing to the Israel Defense Forces, the Shin Bet security service and the security services,” Netanyahu said.
bernard ross Said:
Almost every culture around the world has developed stories about fools in their midst. It’s a way of gently poking fun at themselves. In Jewish folklore we find a wonderful mythical town in Poland called Chelm, where all the residents are usually happy, gentle folk who also share another virtue – they are considered fools by everyone living outside of Chelm. But the Chelmites know they are the great sages of the world, the brightest of bright. Storytellers have been telling stories about these Jewish noodle heads of Chelm for many hundreds of years.
(gallows humour):
During the days of oppression and poverty of the Russian shtetls, one village had a rumour going around: a Christian girl was found murdered near their village. Fearing a pogrom, they gathered at the synagogue. Suddenly, the rabbi came running up, and cried, “Wonderful news! The murdered girl was Jewish!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLGnekh2y6k
Yamit,
Your Chelm shtick — or repertoire, if you prefer, has caused a smile to appear on my face. A rare phenomenon these days.
Now, invoke some additional magic and make the Netanyahu regime disappear into some appropriately deep rathole.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
yamit82 Said:
Is Chelm in Israel?
bernard ross Said:
or maybe Poland… reminds me of Polish jokes.
Not only the renege on transfers done a myriad of times they have even ignored a cabinet decision against returning bodies of terrorists. A cabinet decision has the authority of standing law. They make a decision then ignore it? “Chelm”
Examples of Chelm stories are:
“Which is more important, the sun or the moon?” a citizen of Chelm asked the rabbi.
“What a silly question!” snapped the cleric. “The moon, of course! It shines at night when we really need it. But who needs the sun to shine when it is already broad daylight?”
The melamed of Chelm was speaking with his wife.
“If I were Rothschild, I’d be richer than he.”
“How can that be?” asked the wife. “You would both have the same amount of money.”
“True,” he agreed, “but I’d do a little teaching on the side.”
The town of Che?m decided to build a new synagogue. So, some strong, able-bodied men were sent to a mountaintop to gather heavy stones for the foundation. The men put the stones on their shoulders and trudged down the mountain to the town below. When they arrived, the town constable yelled, “Foolish men! You should have rolled the stones down the mountain!” The men agreed this was an excellent idea. So they turned around, and with the stones still on their shoulders, trudged back up the mountain, and rolled the stones back down again.
Rabbi Altmann and his secretary were sitting in a coffeehouse in Berlin in 1935. “Herr Altmann,” said his secretary, “I notice you’re reading Der Stürmer! I can’t understand why. A Nazi libel sheet! Are you some kind of masochist, or, God forbid, a self-hating Jew?”
“On the contrary, Frau Epstein. When I used to read the Jewish papers, all I learned about were pogroms, riots in Palestine, and assimilation in America. But now that I read Der Stürmer, I see so much more: that the Jews control all the banks, that we dominate in the arts, and that we’re on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!”
HMMMMMMMMMM?
bernard ross Said:
Gosh, even I did not think they would be that quick to renege…. Looks like they think Israelis will keep falling for the con at an even higher rate each time…… a con artist keeps working his con until his sucker wises up.
@ bernard ross:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qf6Sv3A9zs
None of the above can I deny. In company with so many others, I have no expectations regarding services to Jewish nationalism by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
The more he claims he will do the less seems to happen.
The Palestinian incitement against the Jews comes directly from the top, meaning Abbas. But as long as Netanyahu is in bed with him (figuratively speaking) nothing will be done and as Bernard Ross says it’s all blah, blah,blah.
sounds like a lot of blah blah blah, same old same old…. all things that will never or hardly happen or will be ended in a couple of weeks or months. No seriously aggressive move on the terror heads calling for jewish blood in the PA. Abbas and his two sons should have been long dead, but then he and BB know how to deal with each other and play their respective constituencies. Bennett is right… the recycling of old resolutions…. looks like BB bought liberman.
In the end……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwcBaG-S7UA