The Binyamin Residents Council called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to fire Defense Minister Ehud Barak because of his failure to protect residents from terror attacks. The attacks came about as a result of the removal of roadblocks and checkpoints, the Council said, and those changes were Barak's idea. Barak “for months has been following a very lax security policy. This is what happened when he ran away in Tze'elim, when he abandoned our partners in south Lebanon, and in the way he handled the Gaza flotilla. It is time that Barak be fired and replaced by someone competent. The state deserves a defense minister who deals strictly with defense,” the Council said.