Public Security Minister Uzi Landau visited Hevron today. He began his visit in the Kiryat Arba police station, then took a tour of the area with local commander Col. Noam Tivon, and concluded with a sometimes-stormy meeting with local Jewish leaders. The latter demanded that the police stop its strong-arm policy against residents, and that the government give the order conquer the Abu Sneineh hills. Landau visited the protest tent established after the murder of ten-month-old Shalhevet Pass by a sniper standing atop the Jewish neighborhood in the Abu Sneineh hills. His conversation with one woman resident, Orit Strook, is partially transcribed below:
Strook: On these very hills above us, the murderers of the baby Shalhevet Pass are still walking around freely, as well as other potential murderers of all of us.
Landau: This is a struggle that doesn\'t begin in one day and won\'t end in one day. -
S: But it has already been seven months!
L: During these seven months, fire has been rained down on Hevron, and on motorists to Ofrah and Beit El, and mortar shells, to Nachal Oz, and Sderot, and Kfar Saba, and Netanyah, and other places -
S: Are you waiting for another victim?
L: No. You are in the same boat as the entire public of the State of Israel.
S: (yelling) The entire public is yelling, Give us security! This is why we voted for Arik Sharon!
L: Correct -
S: The entire public went to elections, and spent so much money, and voted for Sharon, so that we can have security!
L: Correct -
S: - it wasn\'t only us in Hevron, all of Am Yisrael is screaming for security. Everywhere in Israel where there is an Abu Sneineh from where they are murdering Jews - there are many Abu Sneinehs like this from where Jews are being murdered: in Kfar Saba, and Netanya, and Sderot, and Morag, and everywhere! What is going on with you [plural]?!
L: (after a pause) The question is clear. And this government, which has fundamentally changed the policy [of the previous government], must now go forward in much faster and more efficient steps...
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said today that the government has already begun to take stronger action: \"It initiates many more actions against terrorists and would-be terrorists, and also retaliates, when necessary, much more strongly...\"
However, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer emphasized that although he is determined to continue a non-yielding war against terrorism, \"we will concentrate only on the terrorists and those who send them.\" In a statement expressing his deep sorrow at the terrible catastrophe that befell the Hershkovitz family, Ben-Eliezer noted that the government\'s distinction between terrorists and \"the innocent population that does not take part in the warfare\" is designed to prevent a \"broadening of the circle of violence.\" Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, too, said yesterday that Israel would continue to allow the Palestinian population, \"which is not engaged in warfare against Israel,\" to live normal lives.
Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein, a resident of Ofrah, did not wish to argue in favor of \"collective punishment,\" but said that in order to preserve Jewish lives, and because the murders \"receive legitimization [within Palestinian society],\" certain measures should be taken: \"There is nothing wrong, for instance, with declaring that no one may walk within 100 meters of roads traveled by Israelis.\" He said that Israel must cause the Palestinians to realize that time is working against them, by building more and more homes in Yesha in response to every terrorist attack.
Strook: On these very hills above us, the murderers of the baby Shalhevet Pass are still walking around freely, as well as other potential murderers of all of us.
Landau: This is a struggle that doesn\'t begin in one day and won\'t end in one day. -
S: But it has already been seven months!
L: During these seven months, fire has been rained down on Hevron, and on motorists to Ofrah and Beit El, and mortar shells, to Nachal Oz, and Sderot, and Kfar Saba, and Netanyah, and other places -
S: Are you waiting for another victim?
L: No. You are in the same boat as the entire public of the State of Israel.
S: (yelling) The entire public is yelling, Give us security! This is why we voted for Arik Sharon!
L: Correct -
S: The entire public went to elections, and spent so much money, and voted for Sharon, so that we can have security!
L: Correct -
S: - it wasn\'t only us in Hevron, all of Am Yisrael is screaming for security. Everywhere in Israel where there is an Abu Sneineh from where they are murdering Jews - there are many Abu Sneinehs like this from where Jews are being murdered: in Kfar Saba, and Netanya, and Sderot, and Morag, and everywhere! What is going on with you [plural]?!
L: (after a pause) The question is clear. And this government, which has fundamentally changed the policy [of the previous government], must now go forward in much faster and more efficient steps...
Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said today that the government has already begun to take stronger action: \"It initiates many more actions against terrorists and would-be terrorists, and also retaliates, when necessary, much more strongly...\"
However, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer emphasized that although he is determined to continue a non-yielding war against terrorism, \"we will concentrate only on the terrorists and those who send them.\" In a statement expressing his deep sorrow at the terrible catastrophe that befell the Hershkovitz family, Ben-Eliezer noted that the government\'s distinction between terrorists and \"the innocent population that does not take part in the warfare\" is designed to prevent a \"broadening of the circle of violence.\" Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, too, said yesterday that Israel would continue to allow the Palestinian population, \"which is not engaged in warfare against Israel,\" to live normal lives.
Binyamin Regional Council head Pinchas Wallerstein, a resident of Ofrah, did not wish to argue in favor of \"collective punishment,\" but said that in order to preserve Jewish lives, and because the murders \"receive legitimization [within Palestinian society],\" certain measures should be taken: \"There is nothing wrong, for instance, with declaring that no one may walk within 100 meters of roads traveled by Israelis.\" He said that Israel must cause the Palestinians to realize that time is working against them, by building more and more homes in Yesha in response to every terrorist attack.