National Union head blames Netanyahu for Bat Ayin attack

Katz slams Netanyahu for choosing "Barak and extreme left" over the "party that represents settlers."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
bat ayin view 248 88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
bat ayin view 248 88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
National Union chairman Ya'acov Katz slammed new Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, blaming him for Thursday afternoon's fatal terror attack in Bat Ayin. In a statement released shortly after the attack, which left 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ dead and a seven-year-old boy moderately wounded, Katz said that "Netanyahu's strategic decision to choose [Labor chairman Ehud] Barak and the extreme Left, over a party that represents the settlers who devote their souls to the country... makes more murderous terrorists." The terrorists were well aware that under Netanyahu, Barak, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman the current government "will continue racism against Jews in the West Bank," Katz said. "Unfortunately, the terrorists know Netanyahu's weakness," he added. "They also know that if they get caught, Barak will release them so they can attack again." The attack showed that the new government "has no grace period and we must - from the start - handle all the terrorist organizations with an iron fist," said MK Robert Ilatov, head of Israel Beiteinu's faction. "Personal security, whether within or outside the Green Line borders, must be the top priority of the government and we have to prove that from now on there are new rules of the game," he said. "Our heart goes out to the settlers in Gush Etzion," and the "cold-blooded murderers should know that terrorist attacks will only strengthen Jewish settlements in that area," Likud faction head Ze'ev Elkin said. Directly after the attack, Kadima MK Gideon Ezra, who happened to be in the area at the time, urged the Palestinian Authority to cooperate with Israeli forces to help apprehend the terrorist. "The first, most important thing is to find the murderer," Ezra told reporters. "We must call on the Palestinian Authority to help catch this murderer." MK David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu) told reporters the government would do everything it had to do to keep such incidents from recurring. "If we need to bring back some roadblocks, we'll bring back roadblocks," he said. "And if we need to add new ones, we'll add new ones."