Doesn't Anyone In Israel Have A Right To Defend Themselves?

Channel 10 TV in Israel is reporting that the IDF is conducting an operation to confiscate weapons from Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.

MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) wrote a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak following the report: "Army representatives have recently informed the military security coordinators that they intend to collect most of the weapons which the residents of Judea and Samaria use for self-defense," he wrote.

"When a move such as this is made along with the release of hundreds of terrorists; the deployment of Palestinian policemen in Shechem (three of whom were involved in the murder of Ido Zoldan) and the arming of these policemen with weapons, ammunition and armored personnel carriers, this amounts to making the settlers fair game and sending the terror organizations a clear message that they may murder Jews," Eldad added.

Apparently there is a bill in the works that will see to it that members of the Cabinet will soon be feeling the settler's pain--as Likud and Labor team up to propose a bill that will give protection to only seven of Israel's leaders, and the rest only on an as-need basis.

Likud Knesset faction chairman MK Gideon Saar and Labor MK Shelly Yechimovich submitted the bill today (Wednesday) to amend the existing General Security Service (GSS) bill. The new legislation stipulates that only the seven "national leadership symbols" would be eligible for full-time protection by the GSS (Shabak). The seven are the President, Prime Minister, Supreme Court Chief Justice, Knesset Speaker, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, and Opposition Leader.

At present, every Cabinet minister is accompanied by a GSS agent or two - at a total cost of some 100 million shekels each year. The new bill stipulates that they would be protected only when necessary based on concrete threats, as determined by periodic security assessments.

Let's hope the Cabinet members don't live in the West Bank, otherwise they'd really be in trouble.

Technorati Tag: Israel.