Health Minister Nissim Dahan (Shas), visiting Hevron\'s Jewish areas today, spoke to Arutz-7 today about his party\'s past and present positions, and hinted at its future plans. Dahan was first asked about Shas\' calls of late for a strong military response against the PA, in light of its past support for the Oslo process. His response:
\"Our position has always been that the security of all citizens in Israel, including that of those who live in Hevron, is of paramount importance. We thought that if we offer our hand in peace, we would be able to attain this goal. Throughout the years, we demanded that Israel must make a call for peace. But unfortunately it turns out that we made a mistake in our partner, and that instead of a peace partner he is really an arch-terrorist and murderer. Once we fulfilled our role and made our peace offer, and saw that it went unanswered, we have no further obligation, and now the time has arrived to speak to [the Palestinians] only in the language they understand, the language of force. This is what we demand of the Prime Minister.\"
Dahan expressed disdain for the method in which his Cabinet colleagues Rehavam Ze\'evi and Avigdor Lieberman of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu party expressed their similar demand:
\"What is this business of not showing up for Cabinet meetings? If they want to resign in protest, then let them resign. But simply not to show up? And what happens if we lose an important security vote because they\'re not there? We [Shas] prefer to continue to sit at the government table and speak strongly for what we believe.\" Asked if Shas is giving any time limits on their demands, Dahan said, \"There are things that we\'d prefer not to speak of publicly. But what you mentioned is one of the things that we know how to do...\"
\"Our position has always been that the security of all citizens in Israel, including that of those who live in Hevron, is of paramount importance. We thought that if we offer our hand in peace, we would be able to attain this goal. Throughout the years, we demanded that Israel must make a call for peace. But unfortunately it turns out that we made a mistake in our partner, and that instead of a peace partner he is really an arch-terrorist and murderer. Once we fulfilled our role and made our peace offer, and saw that it went unanswered, we have no further obligation, and now the time has arrived to speak to [the Palestinians] only in the language they understand, the language of force. This is what we demand of the Prime Minister.\"
Dahan expressed disdain for the method in which his Cabinet colleagues Rehavam Ze\'evi and Avigdor Lieberman of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu party expressed their similar demand:
\"What is this business of not showing up for Cabinet meetings? If they want to resign in protest, then let them resign. But simply not to show up? And what happens if we lose an important security vote because they\'re not there? We [Shas] prefer to continue to sit at the government table and speak strongly for what we believe.\" Asked if Shas is giving any time limits on their demands, Dahan said, \"There are things that we\'d prefer not to speak of publicly. But what you mentioned is one of the things that we know how to do...\"