Center-left politician Isaac Herzog claimed today (Wednesday) that Israel citizens have “no sense of security” in a statement following a morning terror attack on a Dan bus in Tel Aviv.
“There is no sense of security for Israel’s citizens – not in Jerusalem, not in the Gaza border area and not in Tel Aviv,” Herzog said.
The head of the Labor party recently merged with Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni to bolster their parties’ challenge against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in upcoming elections.
Livni added her two cents as well, saying, “Israeli citizens deserve to live safely in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and near the Gaza border; everywhere in Israel and outside of it.
“It should be clear that in the war on terror there are no compromises,” Livni went on, in what for her seemed an unusually hard line. She added, however, that striking terrorism could be accomplished while increasing intelligence and security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, and enlisting the world to do battle against terrorism and defend the Jewish State.
“Terrorism is not dealt with through negotiation, but through force and more force and more force. We must and can stop the escalation,” she said.
Ironically, a politician that might easily be considered a potential coalition partner in a future deal warned Herzog and others not to add fuel to the fire following the attack.
Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman named Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, de facto Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh (Gaza), Islamic Movement Northern Branch head Sheikh Ra’ed Salah, Balad MK Hanin Zoabi and United Arab List MK Ahmed Tibi as the team behind an incitement campaign encouraging Arabs to launch terror attacks against Israeli citizens.
“They are all part of the same move to undermine Israel’s right to exist as the Jewish State – and they see no difference between Judea, Samaria, the Negev, the Galilee, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,” Liberman pointed out.
“They are all part of the same unit whose goal it is to eliminate the Jewish State. Therefore we must act in a determined fashion against all of these people, who act under different names and in different arenas, but all in the name of the same goal: to kill Jews and to annihilate Israel.”
Economy Minister and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) chairman Naftali Bennett, however, narrowed down the target to one man: Abbas, who is known to his own constituency by his terrorist name, “Abu Mazen.”
“The man responsible for the terror attack in Tel Aviv this morning is the same person seen marching among world leaders only a week ago in Paris,” said Bennett. “When Abu Mazen incites against Jews day and night on television, when [he] names town squares after murderers and gives financial rewards to the killers of Jews – he becomes the mastermind and the terrorists his messengers,” he said.
Bennett added that Israel should stop the flow of tax funds withheld on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, for as long as Abbas “continues to fund the families of terrorists.” The reference is to the specific salary paid monthly by the PA government to each and every terrorist prisoner incarcerated in an Israeli prison. Most are higher than the average wage earned by local Palestinian laborers.
Ironically, far-left Meretz chairwoman Zehava Gal-On called on “all political elements” in a statement after the attack Wednesday to moderate their language in reacting to the incident.
“Don’t incite and inflame the sector for cynical, propagandistic purposes,” Gal-On said. “The only way to deal with terror is to deal with the factors that motivate terror.”