Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested Monday that Israel connect Gaza to Judea and Samaria with a 48-kilometer tunnel under the northern Negev. The tunnel would create territorial continuity allowing for the establishment of a Palestinian Authority-led Arab state in both Gaza and areas east of the 1949 armistice line, he explained.
In an elections conference held at Ben-Gurion University, Barak told students that a tunnel from the city of Beit Hanoun in Gaza to the town of Dura near Hevron would cost two or three billion dollars, an amount he termed “reasonable". The PA would be allowed to make free use of the tunnel, he said.
While explaining his plans for a PA-led state, Barak said he remained ready to strike Hamas and other PA-based terrorists if necessary. In the Middle East, leaders must have “one hand looking for peace all the time... while the second hand hovers near the trigger, ready to pull at any time,” he said.
Barak also used the rally to slam his political opponents. He accused Kadima head Tzipi Livni and Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu of ignoring rocket fire from Gaza, and took credit for the recent Cast Lead counterterror offensive in the area. “I arrived and gave the IDF an order to batter Hamas with deeds and not words,” he said.
He compared selecting a national leader to choosing a pilot to man an aircraft, and told students, “In the end, you don't choose the one who looks like a pilot or the one who watched hundreds of landings from the cockpit, but rather the one who knows how to fly a plane, even if he had some rough landings.”