Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) promised Sunday, in an interview with Arutz Sheva, that following the terror attack at Psagot, his ministry will strengthen and enlarge the community.
Minister Ariel noted that he went to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital at around 1:00 a.m. Last night, where he spoke with the girl wounded in the attack, Noam Glick, and her parents. “She is a great heroine,” he said. “She did lose her wits despite this terrible and scary thing. She spoke and she identified [the terrorist],” he said.
Ariel, who is a Kohen (of priestly descent), blessed the girl and her parents with the blessing of the Kohanim.
Ariel said he does not see the current situation as a “third intifada.” Such a definition would be proper, he said, if the wave of violence had a large scale organixational infrastructure, which is not the case.
“Intifada,” an Arabic term meaning “shaking off the yoke,” has been used to describe a violent uprising in 1987-1993 and a murderous terror war in 2000-2009 that killed 1,178 Israelis, 70% of them civilians, in over 20,000 attacks that included 144 suicide bombings.
The minister did say that the current violence is a problem that requires that the government “stop, think anew, reach conclusions and see how we continue.”
The attempts to carry on as if nothing is happening is misguided, he said, and causes the other side to believe that it can carry on with the terrorism, “and in this I include Jerusalem, where there are hundreds of [violent] events every month,” he said. “This is unbearable and unreasonable,” he said.
Ariel said that he has met with the prime minister and hopes to see changes in the pattern of events soon.
He also rejected the claims that the recent terror attacks are not the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its head, Mahmoud Abbas (“Abu Mazen”). “This is a wide ranging thing,” he said. “The same 'Abu' is not denouncing and the same 'Mazen' is not taking action to arrest terrorists but only making poses.”
Ariel said that when he promises to strengthen and enlarge Psagot, he means it. “When someone seeks to uproot us, we immediately dig in and send out deeper roots. That is what will happen in Psagot.” He challenged Arutz Sheva to follow up on his promise and see if he makes good on it.