Bennett: "What a tunnel from Gaza did not do, tunnels for Route 6 will do""

August 6, 2014   

Is Minister Naftali Bennett implicitly criticizing the decision to end Operation Protective Edge? In a post he published today (Wednesday) on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the expulsion from Gush Katif, the Minister of Economy claims that the establishment of a Palestinian state will only increase the scope of the security threats that the State of Israel will be forced to face and will crash the Israeli economy. And this is what he wrote about things he learned from the disengagement: ""Whoever flees from terror, terror pursues him. Whoever pursues terror, will live in security. Never look for excuses for why I am colonizing my land: the answer is that the land is simply mine. I learned that anyone who asks, 'What can we do there, it's dangerous,' will always find that they start asking him the same question even if he lives in Tel Aviv. I learned that a Palestinian state will crash the Israeli economy: it will crash tourism, business, trade. It will skyrocket defense spending, and put us in international isolation. What one rocket flying from Gaza to Judah did, an anti-aircraft missile from Samaria, 6 km from Ben-Gurion Airport, maybe even a shoulder-fired missile, could do. Only then it won't blow for two days. What one tunnel from Gaza didn't do, a tunnel to Kfar Saba will do, tunnels will be built for Route 6. This is not a theory, this is cause and effect. This must not happen. We have a country that has developed amazingly, 67 years, 50 of which with Judea and Samaria, and thanks to them. For messianic fantasies about peace with murderers, we will not destroy everything. I also learned not to listen to those who say: 'If they harm us, we will enter them, we will have international legitimacy' - the world despises the weak and those who retreat. Israel's status since the escape from Gush Katif has deteriorated like never before. From the houses that we evacuated in Gush Katif, they are now shooting at us, but in no international interview I have conducted have I encountered sympathy for us because of this. Quite the opposite." Bennett also attacks the 'security experts' and the media: "I learned not to blindly believe the statements of security experts, even if they are the majority. Not to believe the media, even if they are the majority (the majority is only on screen).". He then praises the fighters: "I saw the children of Gush Katif sacrificing their lives together with the entire Jewish people, surrendering their lives to our fate in the Second Lebanon War and in the war in Gaza: "I learned that I have no other people, no other army, no other place for Jews in the world. If we are not together, we will not be. After the disengagement, and after the Second Lebanon War, I realized that I was not standing on the sidelines. And I learned that I was not willing to have a Jew expel a Jew again. Never.".