Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer, speaking during a visit to Gush Katif this morning, said that it is clear that every Jewish community in Gaza must have a fence built around it. \"The statistics speak for themselves,\" he said. \"There have been 14 attempted infiltrations in the past month.\" It was not immediately clear whether he was including attempted infiltrations to communities that already have fences.
In a related item, Arutz-7 brings you the following excerpts from an op-ed by Emunah Elon entitled \"Isolated Settlements\" that appears in today\'s Yediot Acharonot. Ms. Elon is a former Advisor to the Prime Minister [Netanyahu] on the Status of Women, a noted children\'s author and a newspaper columnist.
\"It\'s only been a year and a half since the Palestinians exploded the \"peace process\" [and] rejected the Israeli offer to dismantle most of the [Judea and Samaria] communities… and the internal Israeli dispute over whether to transfer Jews has once again come to the fore. Although the Yesha public stood up to the terrorism with courage and dignity that surprised even itself, and gritted its teeth, maintained its daily routine and did not allow the daily attacks to banish them from their roads and communities - it sometimes appears as if the terrorism has, despite all, paid off.
\"[Not only leftists, but even some in the center] say that there is no choice at this point but to evacuate at least the \"isolated\" settlements. … Since erecting a Chinese wall-like electronic and state-of-the-art fence is considered these days to be the best and only way to protect Israeli citizens, and since it is impossible to build such a fence around every single community, therefore, they say, the only alternative is to destroy the isolated settlements and transfer their 30,000 residents.
\"The problem with this theory is that the various governments of Israel did not establish these isolated settlements just to make the settlers happy. Adura, for example [where four people were murdered by Palestinian terrorists four days ago], was built in order to ensure that the IDF, and not a Palestinian army, oversee the city of Kiryat Gat and environs from above. Netzarim, too, as well as Ganim and Talmon, were established where they are because the Israeli governments decided that it is impossible to protect Israel from within its narrow pre-1967 borders. It would therefore not be quite worth our while to have the enemy and its suicide killers deploy in these locations.
\"A sensible Israel need not destroy small isolated towns, but should rather make sure that they stop being small and isolated. A place called N\'vei Tzedek was also once small and isolated, until it turned into Tel Aviv…\"
In a related item, Arutz-7 brings you the following excerpts from an op-ed by Emunah Elon entitled \"Isolated Settlements\" that appears in today\'s Yediot Acharonot. Ms. Elon is a former Advisor to the Prime Minister [Netanyahu] on the Status of Women, a noted children\'s author and a newspaper columnist.
\"It\'s only been a year and a half since the Palestinians exploded the \"peace process\" [and] rejected the Israeli offer to dismantle most of the [Judea and Samaria] communities… and the internal Israeli dispute over whether to transfer Jews has once again come to the fore. Although the Yesha public stood up to the terrorism with courage and dignity that surprised even itself, and gritted its teeth, maintained its daily routine and did not allow the daily attacks to banish them from their roads and communities - it sometimes appears as if the terrorism has, despite all, paid off.
\"[Not only leftists, but even some in the center] say that there is no choice at this point but to evacuate at least the \"isolated\" settlements. … Since erecting a Chinese wall-like electronic and state-of-the-art fence is considered these days to be the best and only way to protect Israeli citizens, and since it is impossible to build such a fence around every single community, therefore, they say, the only alternative is to destroy the isolated settlements and transfer their 30,000 residents.
\"The problem with this theory is that the various governments of Israel did not establish these isolated settlements just to make the settlers happy. Adura, for example [where four people were murdered by Palestinian terrorists four days ago], was built in order to ensure that the IDF, and not a Palestinian army, oversee the city of Kiryat Gat and environs from above. Netzarim, too, as well as Ganim and Talmon, were established where they are because the Israeli governments decided that it is impossible to protect Israel from within its narrow pre-1967 borders. It would therefore not be quite worth our while to have the enemy and its suicide killers deploy in these locations.
\"A sensible Israel need not destroy small isolated towns, but should rather make sure that they stop being small and isolated. A place called N\'vei Tzedek was also once small and isolated, until it turned into Tel Aviv…\"