Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett said on Saturday night that it is time for Israel to stop blaming itself for terrorist attacks and start fighting terror.
Speaking to Channel 2’s “Meet the Press” program, Bennett said that terrorists’ homes must be destroyed the same day they carry out a terror attack.
“Today, those terrorists who go and commit suicide, reach heaven: their family receives a pension and they are residents of Israel. We need to change the equation – destroy the terrorist’s home the same day and not three months later, and deny benefits and residency to his family,” he said.
“We need to enter their neighborhoods with Border Police and be there regularly. Then I want to see the mother sending her child to commit a terrorist attack,” added Bennett.
He rejected claims that the recent wave of terrorism has anything to do with Israeli MKs visiting the Temple Mount and also rejected the notion that if Israel doesn’t take actions against terrorism, Arabs will want to make peace.
“Zionism has been under a terrorist threat for 120 years,” said Bennett. “It did not start in 1967 and in 1948. Jews were massacred in Hevron back in 1929. Heads are being cut off in Iraq and hundreds of thousands are slaughtered in Afghanistan and Syria. There is a huge Islamist wave that may continue for another hundred years. Did Barak not try to divide Jerusalem? So we got 1,600 people killed over it. Enough already! It’s time to decide if we’re stopping the defensive and starting the offensive.”
He continued, “We cannot have whole areas of Israel without law. It needs to be resolved. We saw what happened when we placed concrete barriers [near the Light Rail stations]. What did they do? The bypassed them and went to a synagogue.”
In the interview, Bennett also repeated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call from a few days ago for a national unity government, a call that has already been rejected by the parties in the opposition.
“I call on [Labor leader] Herzog and the hareidim to enter such a government. This is a difficult time. We still have a significant period to be in the government – consider it seriously, join the government,” he said.
