by Tovah Lazaroff, Eliav Breuer
During the week the Knesset will push legislation that would allow for the expulsion of terrorists and their families.
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Benjamin Netanyahu at the government cabinet meeting, February 12, 2023.
(photo credit: AMIT SHABI/POOL)
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The security cabinet is prepared later today to take broad action against terrorists and their supporters in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the government’s weekly meeting.
At that meeting steps will be taken that would allow the security cabinet to strengthen settlements, he added.
“The appropriate answer to terrorism is to strike it hard - and deepen our roots in our country even more,” Netanyahu said.
During the week the Knesset will push legislation that would allow for the expulsion of terrorists and their families, he said referencing the legislation applicable to those with Israeli citizenship or residency who received stipends for that action from the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu speak about Friday's Jerusalem ramming
He spoke in the aftermath of Friday’s ramming terror attack at a bus stop in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of three Israelis, including two children aged six and eight.
Rescue and Police at the scene of the deadly car-ramming attack near
the Ramot junction, in Jerusalem on February 10, 2023. (credit: YONATAN
SINDEL/FLASH90)“On behalf of the Israeli government, I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of those murdered in the severe attack in Jerusalem last Friday,” Netanyahu said.
The terrorist’s home in Jerusalem’s A-Tor neighborhood has already been sealed off, he said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had already called before the meeting for the Border Police to embark on a mission against terrorism similar to Operation Defensive Shield held in the West Bank in 2002 during the Second Intifada.
"I am determined in my mind to launch 'Operation Defensive Shield 2', which is an operation [to restore] governance," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said ahead of the government's weekly Sunday morning meeting, referring to the IDF's large military operation in the West Bank in 2002, at the height of the Second Intifada.
"The intention is not to enter with tanks, not to do all kinds of actions that are the army's prerogative, but I am the national security minister, and the Israel Police, can, should, and I told it to prepare for 'Operation Defensive Shield 2," he said.
Ben-Gvir said that there were 150 "targets," and he said that the police should "arrest them, search them, destroy homes without fear, give traffic tickets, and instill governance in Jerusalem."
He added that the police had already begun such an operation but that it was currently at a low intensity, which will grow. "Without a governance operation in east Jerusalem, and, by the way, in the Negev and Galilee, it will blow up on us, it will blow up on the state of Israel," the minister concluded.
What caused him to make these comments?
Ben-Gvir's comments came after he was criticized and even ridiculed over the weekend by senior police officials and politicians, including "senior government officials," for calling for "Operation Defensive Shield 2" soon after the terror ramming attack that killed three Israelis, without understanding that operations of such scope require months of planning and are decided upon by the entire government.
While talking to reporters, the national security minister was holding a binder labeled "classified" with the title, "Operation Concentrating Effort". It is not clear whether or not this was the operation he was referring to.
Labor Party leader MK Merav Michaeli called on Netanyahu to fire Ben Gvir, explaining that “a serious and experienced person should be appointed, especially in such a sensitive security period when one attack follows another and terrorism is on the rise again.
“Israel cannot afford a provocateur like Itamar Ben Gvir in such a sensitive position, at a time when the citizens of Israel are experiencing a serious deterioration in the security situation. The scene of a terrorist attack is not a circus, and the lives of Israeli citizens are not a reality show,” she added.
Earlier on Sunday, Likud MK Tali Gottlieb accused High Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut for Friday's attack.
"I blame her for the feeling of chaos amongst the people of Israel, I blame her for the destruction and severe damage to democracy and the rule of law. She scared [people] regarding a right-wing government. Not because of the [judicial] reform. So what if there will be chaos here, so what if our enemies will attack us because they will identify weakness amongst us, everything is legitimate in order to topple a right-wing government," Gottlieb wrote.
Netanyahu put out a short statement against the tweet, but Gottlieb later repeated her claim, accusing Hayut of "scaring people because of legitimate actions of the right-wing government using very harsh words," as well as "sedition of half of the people against the other half."
"By doing so you are creating chaos amongst us and surely awakening the terrorists within us to bring about destruction," she said.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin also heavily criticized the High Court on Sunday morning, but for a different reason – its decision not to reject out of hand an appeal by the Movement of Quality Government in Israel calling on the attorney general to declare Netanyahu "incapacitated" due to the conflict of interest between his ongoing trial and the judicial reforms.
"A group of jurists that do not respect the result of the election are acting now in order to launch a coup d'etat and declare prime minister Netanyahu incapacitated," Levin said.
"It is not surprising that the people in this move are the same who are leading the opposition to the judicial reform: The left-wing organization called the Movement of Quality Government, the Attorney -general and the High Court.
"An attempt to remove a prime minister illegally, while trampling a democratic election, is no different than a coup d'etat carried out with tanks. The intent is the same, and the result is the same.
"We will not enable this coup d'etat, which emphasizes how necessary the reform of the legal system is. A reform that will bring back democracy and the checks and balances between the government's branches," the justice minister concluded.
The movement said in response that it was an organization that acted on behalf of proper governance in both right-wing and left-wing governments, and it called on Levin to apologize or to remove his legal immunity so that the issue could be "clarified in court."
Leader of the Labor Party former minister Merav Michaeli MK: every minute Ben Gvir remains in office causes damage to national security. If the security of the people of our country is your top priority - you must fire him from his position immediately.
"For the position of Minister of National Security, especially in a sensitive security period, a serious and experienced person should be appointed, not a provocateur. The scene of a terrorist attack is not a circus, and the lives of Israeli citizens are not a reality show."
Tovah Lazaroff, Eliav Breuer
Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-731332
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