Netanyahu: We uprooted citizens from Gaza, and now it is a terror base

Anyone who lectures and pressures Israel about "concessions" and wonders why Israel is not eager to make such concesions must study the lesson of the Gaza diisengagement.

 

Ami Isseroff

Last update - 12:26 02/08/2009       
PM: We uprooted citizens from Gaza, and now it is a terror base
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remarked on the four-year anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. At the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that "Israel uprooted 10,000 of its citizens from their homes and Gaza has turned into a terror base under the control of Hamas, and sponsored by Iran."

 

"I want to stress the fact that we are committed to the full rehabilitation of those uprooted, and the cabinet will discuss the matter next week," Netanyahu added.

 

"We will not put up with rocket fire [from Gaza] into our communities. We will decisively respond to every attack," the prime minister went on to declare. "Peace will once again be based on reciprocation."

"Israel expects the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, it expects that the refugee issue be resolved outside of Israel and the implementation of effective security solutions with international guarantees -  all these are conditions for the advancement of a sustainable and stable peace agreement," Netanyahu explained.

 

The prime minister said furthermore that Israel was ready to relaunch peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, with Syria and with any other Arab nation with no preconditions.

 

"Anyone who insists on preconditions is standing in the way of peace talks," he said....