NETANYAHU: I STOPPED TERRORISM

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NETANYAHU: I STOPPED TERRORISM

NETANYAHU: I STOPPED TERRORISM
"The Palestinians must be made to know that a natural outgrowth of their
continued violence against us will be strong Israeli actions against the PA
itself, and that we will do everything to bring Arafat down." So said
former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last night, in an exclusive
interview with Arutz-7 English Radio. Interestingly, his successor, former
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, also addressed this question last night, telling
a Tel Aviv audience that a military operation to dissolve and eradicate the
PA, was a most problematic option that should only be entertained as a last
resort and with the support of the international community.

Netanyahu told Arutz-7's Shlomo Quinn and Ray Rublin that for him, the
question of whether he would be able to stand up to international and other
pressures is not hypothetical: "I already did it. I withstood all the
international pressures, and brought terror to a standstill. I did it
during the [Hasmonean] Tunnels incident when I brought in tanks, and Arafat
immediately understood... I did it later when I stopped funding to the PA
after 2-3 bombings, and Arafat saw that the PA was in danger of collapse...
The only way to stop terrorism is by putting economic and military
sanctions on the sponsoring regime. Chasing down individual terrorists is
OK, but that won't do the job; there has to be action against the PA
itself..."

Netanyahu said that he regretted handing over Hevron, "even though I did
leave security patrols in the Abu Sneineh hills." He emphasized that
during his tenure, only 2% of Israeli-controlled territory was handed over
to the PA; he did not mention that the Wye Agreement called for the
transfer of another 7.1% of territory under Israeli military control to the
PA.

Netanyahu related an incident that occurred during a recent interview with
CNN: "The anchorwoman said that the Palestinians say you're taking their
land, and I answered, 'It's not their land.' At that point, there was a
hush in the studio, and I began hearing people there saying, 'What did he
say? It's not their land?"' and I said again, "It's not their land. It's
been our land for over 3,000 years. It's been our eternal city Jerusalem
and our sacred Temple Mount, for 3,000 years... They can stay if they
want, we're not pushing them out, but they can't push US out of our
ancestral homeland. This message is probably more important than anything
else we can say, and I encourage everyone to emphasize this." The
interview with Netanyahu can be heard at
"www.israelnationalnews.com/metafiles/asx/engnews/features/bibi.asx"

Ehud Barak, for his part, said he supports the national unity government
headed by Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and its policies in the current
crisis. Barak blamed Yasser Arafat for the collapse of the Oslo process,
adding that the negotiations were based on the mistaken premise that Arafat
would act as the leader of a nation.