Minister of Defense: Don’t doubt the IDF’s willingness to carry out disengagement.
The cabinet today rejected Minister of Agriculture Israel Katz’s proposal to postpone disengagement by three months. Eighteen ministers supported Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by voting against the proposal. Only Likud ministers Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Health Dan Naveh, and Katz supported the motion. Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Minister of Education Limor Livnat did not support Netanyahu in order to avoid breaking the Likud apart.
At the beginning of the cabinet meeting Sharon stressed that in order to prevent extremists from entering the homes of those agreeing to leave the Gaza Strip, “We must make sure that IDF forces are present.”
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz announced that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would enter homes whose owners had left voluntarily. He quickly added, “I instructed Minister of Public Security Gideon Ezra and Israel Police Commissioner Moshe Kradi to stop the rioting and interference with traffic arteries and civilian life. This is a great danger to the country.”
Mofaz attacked Katz, who accused the defense establishment of being unready. “Don’t doubt the IDF’s willingness to carry out disengagement. There is an evacuation plan, and there is a theory of evacuation. Talk about things in your field of responsibility, not in the fields of responsibility of other ministers,” he told Katz.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 3, 2005