Israeli minister: World may be wasting its money on Gaza
"The Gazans must decide what they want to be Singapore or Darfur [which rhymes in Hebrew]," Transportation Minister Israel Katz said.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANA Palestinian looks out from the remains of his house in Beit Hanun, a town in the northern Gaza Strip.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The countries who pledged vast sums to rebuild the Gaza Strip in Cairo Sunday will have made worthless donations if the people of the Gaza Strip return to terror, Transportation Minister Israel Katz said Sunday.Katz, who is one of the ministers closest to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, issued the warning at a gathering of some 2000 Likud activists outside his Sukka on his ranch on the Moshav Kfar Ahim in the northern Negev."The Gazans must decide what they want to be Singapore or Darfur [which rhymes in Hebrew]," Katz said. "They can pick between economic recovery and war and destruction. If they choose terror, the world should not waste its money. If one missile will be fired, everything will go down the drain."He quoted one of Hamas's founders, Mahmoud a-Zahar threaten Israel using terminology that the minister said sounded like it came from the Islamic State about turning Palestine into an Islamic Kingdom and destroying Israel. Katz said there was a much greater chance that Zahar will soon see in hell fellow Hamas founders Sheikh Ahmed Yassein and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who were assassinated by Israel."The days when the Jews did nothing and were slaughtered are over," Katz said. "If one Protective Edge was not enough, you will get two and three until Hamas terror ends. I prefer 1000 Palestinian mothers crying than letting one Jewish mother cry."Katz called upon the international community to learn from its failure to prevent large swaths of Iraq and Syria from falling into the Islamic State's hands. "The next time they offer us a deal in which we withdraw from territory in return for promises and international forces, we will send them to do their homework in Kurdistan," he said. "We will continue to trust only God and the IDF. Jewish blood is not worthless"The event was attended by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, deputy ministers Tzipi Hotovely and Ophir Akunis, and coalition chairman Yariv Levin.Katz said an election should be held soon for Likud leader and a system should be selected for choosing the party's list for the next Knesset in order to properly prepare well in advance for the next general election. He said the Likud must ensure that it will have 30 MKs in the next Knesset in order to advance its agenda in the ministries it will control.
In Katz's ministry, he promised that by Succot in three years there will be trains that take only 28 minutes to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and 20 minutes from the capital to Ben-Gurion International Airport."We can even declare a special offer," he said. "Free train rides to Jerusalem on Sukkot, Shavuot, and Passover."
