Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman visited the Megilot Regional Council on Sunday evening and toured the communities of Vered Jericho and Qedem Arava. During a pre-Rosh Hashanah toast and working meeting with the heads of the Yesha Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, he said, "As far as I'm concerned, it's clear that the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria, and here in the Jericho area, the Dead Sea, is the real defensive wall of the State of Israel, and that's how it should be treated, as the defensive wall of the State of Israel."
Liberman continued, "Even in the cyber age and the missile age, ultimately the determining factor is who is in the field, and settlement has always been primarily the forward guard of security. Nothing has changed since the [pre-state] 'wall and tower'. Even today the argument is first and foremost about territory."