Israel says it will install security cameras at all intersections throughout Judea and Samaria — “on the ground and in the air” — as part of its upgraded counter-terror measures.
“We decided today to enact a major plan to employ cameras at all junctions in the West Bank, both on the ground and in the air, with connections to operations room,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. This is an important element of restoring security and foiling terror attacks.
The prime minister made the remarks after he visited the site where Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife Na’ama were murdered in a drive-by terror attack last Thursday. Henkin, a U.S. citizen, was also a veteran of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal unit and the son of two well-known Yeshiva University alumni. His mother is the director of a women’s program at the institution.
“There is no question here regarding our support for the military, and everyone knows the truth, in contrast to those who claim otherwise,” Netanyahu said in a reference to lawmakers who have criticized his handling of the recent violence. “There is a certain level of responsibility required from the settlers, and they should be accurate in their claims.”
Netanyahu also said he had plans for vendors in the Old City souk (market) in Jerusalem who laughed at and mocked Adele Lavi as she cried for their help after she was stabbed Saturday night, and ultimately turned their backs on her. “I asked that their stores be shuttered and that they be brought to justice,” the prime minister said. The vendors sneered at Mrs. Lavi, as she begged for help with a knife wound in her shoulder as her husband, baby and a second rabbi were being stabbed and shot.
“The greatest center of incitement in recent years is the [northern] Islamic Movement, and we will take care of them, too,” Netanyahu continued.
“We will break this wave of terror like we broke previous waves of terror. We are in ongoing contact with all our neighbors and are trying to make the facts clear despite the wave of falsehoods that have been disseminated.
“We have no intention of changing the status quo at the Temple Mount, and we have no intention of destroying mosques or building a Third Temple there.
“We have ongoing contact with the Egyptians, the Jordanians and many others,” he added.
“I am not willing to tolerate Israeli citizens joining in the incitement. I cannot tolerate spitting on police or waving PLO and Hamas flags at stadiums – not by Jews and not by Muslims, and I have directed the attorney general to act against the agitators among us.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon added advice that “local council heads need to stop hyperventilating. There’s a difference between the situation during Operation Defensive Shield (which took place during the 2002 second intifada) and that of today. Since then, the IDF has been on the offensive in [Judea and Samaria]; these statements just cause citizens to take the law into their own hands.
“This is an unacceptable phenomenon, which sabotages our struggle against Jewish terror and adds fuel to the fire.
“Ministers must remember that the government has collective responsibility,” Ya’alon said.