Calls Olmert's decision to reroute security fence closer to route 1 'dangerous'
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANsecurity fence 298 88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu onb Sunday compared between the Hamas and the Nazi party, stressing the importance to view it as a serious threat.
"When Hitler came into power, they said that governmental power would make him more moderate and that he didn't mean what he said," Netanyahu said at a Likud activist convention at the Park Hotel in Netanya. "We are talking about bloodthirsty movements, and we should believe what they say," he added.
Earlier in the day, the Likud chairman visited Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood Sunday and warned about the danger caused by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision last week to exclude the neighboring Arab town of Beit Iksa from the security fence.
Netanyahu said that if Kadima were elected and decided to make the fence the border between Israel and a Palestinian state, drivers on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway (Road 1) and residents of Ramot would be in the range of gunfire from Beit Iksa.
"The decision to move the fence to 400 meters from Ramot and 700 meters from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway demonstrates Olmert's inexperience and lack of knowledge about security and policymaking," Netanyahu told reporters in Ramot. "His decision endangered the thousands of Israeli drivers who use the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway every day."
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office responded that Olmert made the decision at the request of the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). Both said the decision had been made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his stroke, but that its announcement was delayed until a visit to the area that had been set for this week.
"They people of Beit Iksa voted for Hamas so why should they be in our state?" an official in the Prime Minister's Office said. "Bibi doesn't want to move the town, so we will be better off if the fence will protect us from them."
Netanyahu said that since Olmert entered office, he made three mistakes: Allowing the Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem, continue to fund the Palestinian Authority even after Hamas's victory, and bringing Hamas closer to Road 1 by moving the fence. He called upon Olmert to reverse the decisions.
The Likud leader was joined on the visit by Likud MKs Uzi Landau, Yuval Steinitz, Silvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz, Gideon Sa'ar, and Gilad Erdan, former MK Natan Sharansky and Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yaakov Amidror, who is not a candidate for Knesset but helped to write the Likud's security platform.
Shalom said that if the Likud wins the election, the border would not be so close to Road 1, adding that if Kadima emerges victorious, they have made no such promise.
Speaking over the din of a muezzin chanting over a loudspeaker in Beit Iksa, Amidror said that if the town was not on Israel's side of the fence, it would be impossible to prevent shootings at Ramot and Road 1.
Steinitz said that he had visited Beit Iksa and was greeted by Palestinian police with Kalashnikov rifles, despite the fact that the town is in Area B, which is under Israeli security control.
"It would be a massive strategic blunder to sacrifice the entrance to Jerusalem and put it in the range of gunfire," Steinitz said.
The Likud later held an event in Netanya with all the party's leaders to demonstrate Likud unity. New Likud slogans will be revealed in upcoming days warning about the danger of Hamas and blaming Hamas's victory on Kadima.
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