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Follow Us on TwitterIsrael ‘unworried’ about Netanyahu’s pledge to dismantle Jordan Valley settlements 19May11 May 20, 2011
The Palestinian Information Centre - 19 May 2011
The head of the Jordan Valley local authority, David Elhayani, said he is not worried about the future of settlement activity in the valley after a speech that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered in the Knesset Tuesday.
He said that the speech highlighted no threats against settlements there.
In the speech, Netanyahu said that any future agreement with Arabs would have to allow Israel to maintain long-term military presence along the Jordan River. But that does not mean that there would not be Jewish communities there as well, he said.
The speech received criticism by some saying that Netanyahu would tear down isolated settlements in the Jordan Valley while maintaining control over the major settlement blocs.
“I trust that the Prime Minister knows how important the Jordan Valley is to the State of Israel. Eighty-four percent of Israeli Jews want continued Israel sovereignty in the Jordan Valley,” the official said.
“When the Prime Minister spoke of a military presence, he was just being responsible. After all, I know the true opinion of the Prime Minister and of ministers who support a continued presence along the Jordan Valley. Security was simply the most trivial thing to talk about.”
Separately, the Israeli premier declared that Israel is establishing a team of Israeli programmers that would work to prevent cyber attacks on the state’s strategic computer networks, Haaretz said on Wednesday.
”Israel is exposed to cyber attacks which can paralyze entire life systems on which the country runs,” Netanyahu warned. ”Electricity, credit cards, water, transportation, traffic lights – every one of those is computerized and therefore susceptible to attack. There is an immediate need to form defenses in the face of such threats.”
More than 750 Israeli websites have been sabotaged since the war Israel launched on the Gaza Strip late 2008.
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