Israel: Cabinet Okays More Counterterrorism Measures
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reconvened the Security Cabinet Tuesday evening following a short afternoon recess, working well past midnight to come up with additional counterterrorism measures.
Early Wednesday, the IDF announced a troop deployment to back up police units.
"In accordance to the directive of the Security Cabinet, the IDF is preparing to deploy 6 companies to reinforce the Israel Police. The additional forces are expected to join police forces later today," the statement read.
The cabinet approved several additions to counterterrorism measures, including the following.
- Israel Police may close off or surround centers of friction or incitement in Jerusalem in accordance with security considerations.
- No new construction will be allowed on the site of a demolished terrorist's home. (This stops the Palestinian Authority from building them a nicer home, like a prize, in the same spot.)
- The property of terrorists who perpetrate attacks will be confiscated and their residency rights revoked.
- An additional 300 security guards will be recruited and trained to protect public transportation sites in the capital, an 80 million shekel investment.
On Wednesday, Israel Police set up checkpoints at the entrance of predominantly Arab neighborhoods in the city's eastern sector.
The Security Cabinet will reconvene Wednesday afternoon to deal with additional issues, including incitement.
Meanwhile, at Monday's opening of the Knesset's winter session, Netanyahu quoted .
"A hundred years of terrorism, a hundred years in which they have tried to destroy the institution of Zionism and yet our enemies haven't learned," Netanyahu told Israeli parliamentarians.
"Terrorism will not defeat us, in fact just the opposite. 'The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew,'" he said, citing verse 12 in the first chapter of Exodus.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he's planning a trip to the regions to try to restore calm.
"I will go there soon, at some point appropriately, and try to work to reengage and see if we can't move that away from this precipice," Kerry said at an event sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvards Kennedy School, YNet reported. This violence and any incitement to violence have got to stop.
