Netanyahu: We are watching Syria very closely

PM tells cabinet Israel will continue to fight terror, both those who carry out attacks and those who send them.

By HERB KEINON
PM Binyamin Netanyahu at weekly cabinet meeting 370 (photo credit: Pool / Flash 90)
PM Binyamin Netanyahu at weekly cabinet meeting 370
(photo credit: Pool / Flash 90)
Two days after Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the IDF would take military action to prevent "leakage" of strategic weapons from Syria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday only that Israel was closely watching developments in Syria and was ready for anything.
Regarding last week's attack in Bulgaria, Netanyahu said that the images from the funerals of the five Israelis killed in the attacks were "heartbreaking."
Netanyahu praised the way in which the country's various organizations –the IDF, the rescue and medical services, foreign ministry and interior ministry – stepped up in the time of crisis to go to Bulgaria and help those injured and traumatized by the blast, and bring home for burial those killed.
"That really reflects the mutual responsibility for one another that is the foundation of our lives, and I want to say that the State of Israel is responsible for its citizens wherever they are, or wherever they may be," he said.
Netanyahu added that Israel would "continue to fight forcefully against terror, both against those who carry out [attacks] and those who send them."
Netanyahu also told the cabinet, the first meeting since Kadima bolted the government because of disagreements over the bill to draft haredim, that Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon would present his plan for drafting the ultra-Orthodox.
The goal of the plan, he said, was to significantly increase the number of haredim serving in the IDF, and also the number of haredim and Arabs involved in national service.
Netanyahu said the plan will bring about a "historic change" in the number of haredim and Arabs performing either army or national service, but said it would be a "realistic change" that will be possible to implement, and not – in a swipe at Kadima – an "empty process whose goal is to grab headlines. We will give more to those who serve, and less to those who evade service."