Finance Minister Silvan Shalom continues to insist that Israel must expel Yasser Arafat from the region. \"The decisions taken by the Cabinet on Monday night were good,\" Shalom told Arutz-7 today, \"but as I said then, we must define the true cause of the terrorism: Yasser Arafat. It can all be traced back to him, and therefore he must be expelled from the region - and if not, the problem will never be solved.\" Shalom, a member of the security cabinet, said that he voted in favor of the military strikes, \"but they are not enough. Arafat is a terrorist disguised as a statesman, and at present, he receives a red carpet in many places in the world - largely because of us, of course - and as such, it is hard to take real action against the entity that he heads. But if he is removed from the scene, then our options to act against the PA terrorism increase…\"
Shalom also has a new idea for solving some of the economic problems caused by the Oslo War: \"On Jan. 1 of this year,\" he said, \"we stopped transferring to the PA monies that we collected for it, such as certain taxes. This was a wise decision, for there is no reason for us to give money to the PA so that it can pay terrorists to act against us. But at the same time, we have been experiencing major negative effects on our economy - our security expenses have climbed tremendously, tourism is down drastically, as are foreign exports and business in general. In Jerusalem, there was a slump for a few months, and business was just getting back to normal when this latest attack happened…
\"Because this war that has been forced upon us is costing us tremendous amounts of money, in terms of compensation for damaged property and much more, I intend to propose to the Cabinet at the next weekly meeting a bill that would enable us to use these frozen funds. The total is 1.6 billion shekels [$378 million]. This will not solve all our problems, but it will help prevent us from nearing an economic crisis-point. It\'s not our job to run a savings plan for Yasser Arafat, in which we hold the money for him and then give it to him later with interest. We are supposed to give them money according to [agreements we signed with him], but since Arafat has abrogated all the agreements, this means that the agreements don\'t exist, and we must act accordingly.\"
Shalom also has a new idea for solving some of the economic problems caused by the Oslo War: \"On Jan. 1 of this year,\" he said, \"we stopped transferring to the PA monies that we collected for it, such as certain taxes. This was a wise decision, for there is no reason for us to give money to the PA so that it can pay terrorists to act against us. But at the same time, we have been experiencing major negative effects on our economy - our security expenses have climbed tremendously, tourism is down drastically, as are foreign exports and business in general. In Jerusalem, there was a slump for a few months, and business was just getting back to normal when this latest attack happened…
\"Because this war that has been forced upon us is costing us tremendous amounts of money, in terms of compensation for damaged property and much more, I intend to propose to the Cabinet at the next weekly meeting a bill that would enable us to use these frozen funds. The total is 1.6 billion shekels [$378 million]. This will not solve all our problems, but it will help prevent us from nearing an economic crisis-point. It\'s not our job to run a savings plan for Yasser Arafat, in which we hold the money for him and then give it to him later with interest. We are supposed to give them money according to [agreements we signed with him], but since Arafat has abrogated all the agreements, this means that the agreements don\'t exist, and we must act accordingly.\"