\"Our presence in the villages and cities in [Judea and Samaria] is like a blanket over a fire.\" So said yesterday the IDF\'s new Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, explaining why the army must remain in these areas. \"There exists the ability and motivation to initiate terrorism,\" he said. \"If we take away the blanket, the fire will burst forth...\"
When the committee\'s new Chairman, MK Chaim Ramon, said that Israel must not \"re-conquer the area,\" and that the Arabs of Yesha will \"find it difficult to come to peace from a position of defeat,\" Yaalon responded, \"The Arabs understood Israel\'s departure from Lebanon as a weakness of Israeli society that does not know how to make sacrifices. This is why it is so important to prove that they will gain nothing via terrorism.\"
When the committee\'s new Chairman, MK Chaim Ramon, said that Israel must not \"re-conquer the area,\" and that the Arabs of Yesha will \"find it difficult to come to peace from a position of defeat,\" Yaalon responded, \"The Arabs understood Israel\'s departure from Lebanon as a weakness of Israeli society that does not know how to make sacrifices. This is why it is so important to prove that they will gain nothing via terrorism.\"