“There will not be any more uprooting of settlements in the Land of Israel. It has been proved that uprooting settlements does not foster peace. We uprooted settlements and what did we get, we received missiles. This will not happen anymore.”
Imagine, a politician who learns from the mistakes of the past. If only we could get one of those in the United States.
“Netanyahu: We will never abandon West Bank settlements to radical Islam,” by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, August 29, 2017:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would remain in the West Bank forever — including in the Samaria region — and that radical Islam would never create a base on its hilltops.
“Samaria is a strategic asset for the State of Israel. It is the cradle of our people and the key to its future,” said Netanyahu on Monday.
He spoke at a ceremony celebrating 50 years of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.
“This is the land we inherited from our forefathers. This is our land. We have returned here to remain for eternity. There will not be any more uprooting of settlements in the Land of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “It has been proved that uprooting settlements does not foster peace,” he added.
Speaking to thousand of participants who sat on plastic chairs in a large open air area in the Barkan Industrial Park, Netanyahu recalled how the demolition of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in northern Samaria in 2005 had only lead to a major increase of violence against Israel from Gaza.
“We uprooted settlements and what did we get, we received missiles,” Netanyahu said. “This will not happen anymore,” he added.
“We have cultivated and protected this place, because it also protect us. … From its cliffs and hilltops it is possible to see from one end of the land to the other, he said.
When speaking with visitors and foreign leaders, Netanyahu said, he asks “imagine that on these peaks that dominate the Dan region there were extremist forces of Islam. It would endanger us – but it would also endanger you, all of our neighbors [and] .. the entire Middle East.”…
“We have gone through a difficult period. It was not a simple one. [Now] there is a momentum for development and construction in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said….