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Defense seeking NIS 200m. more to protect settlements By Amos Harel, Zvi Zrahiya and Moti Bassok, Haaretz Correspondents
The defense establishment recently asked the Finance Ministry to add hundreds of millions of shekels to its budget for next year in order to fortify certain settlements.
Since the Knesset is expected to approve both the 2004 budget and the accompanying Economic Arrangements Bill in first reading Wednesday afternoon, any such funds would presumably have to be added during the committee debates on the budget prior to its final reading.
Though the defense establishment has not yet determined the exact size of the extra funds it is requesting - which would not be part of the regular defense budget, and which so far remains unofficial - it is expected to exceed NIS 200 million.
The additional funds would be included in Article 16 of the budget bill, which deals with the Home Front Command and defensive measures for Israeli communities. That line item currently contains some NIS 130 million, of which about NIS 80 million is for settlements in the territories, though this figure does not appear in the budget book.
While "defensive measures" can include simple items such as bulletproof cars for local security officers, the defense establishment's goal for the extra funds it is requesting is far more ambitious. It wants to create "special security zones" around certain settlements, which Palestinians would be forbidden to enter.
This involves the construction of two fences - an inner and an outer, separated by a few hundred meters - plus lookout posts and night-vision equipment for those manning these posts. Each "special security zone" would thus cost more than NIS 10 million.
The plan was devised in response to both the proliferation of attacks on settlements and the fear that such attacks will increase once the separation fence between Israel and the West Bank in completed, thereby making attacks inside Israel harder to perpetrate.
Meanwhile, however, the 2004 budget and the accompanying Economic Arrangements Bill have been submitted to the Knesset without these extra funds. The plenum began debating both bills Tuesday and will vote on them Wednesday.
---------------------- And on a related topic, get ready for another faked tussle over 'illegal' outposts (as if there were a such thing as legal ones). Be sure that the settlers will be notified well in advance, that the government will send in reserve troops who will only try half-heartedly to remove the settlers, and not the big meaty warrior drones they send against Israeli/international protestors and Palestinians. And for every one (most likely already vacant) outpost taken down, more will suddenly pop up.
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Settler leader: Move against outposts will spur reaction By Haaretz Service
Settler leader and senior National Union lawmaker Uri Ariel, reacting to a news report that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had decided to uproot as many as 20 illegal outposts within a matter of days, said Wednesday that any move to take down outposts would prompt a reaction, as in previous confrontations over the unauthorized enclaves.
Ma'ariv newspaper reported Wednesday that Mofaz would make a decision later in the day over which of 10-20 illegal outposts would be targeted for dismantlement.
It said the decision was prompted by harsh American criticism over "foot-dragging" in removing unauthorized outposts.
"I am not aware of any illegal outposts, but in any event, if, heaven forbid, such a thing were to happen, there would be a reaction, just as there was in previous instances," Ariel told Israel Radio
In prior cases of uprooting outposts, young settlers dubbed "hilltop youth" scuffled with soldiers and made repeated efforts to reconstruct the outpost sites.
Ariel warned that taking action against ouposts "will do no good for internal relations (within the government and the country) and will do good for our relations with the United States. This is foolishness. We've seen this 'movie' many times already.
"What must be done is to take out terrorism, not take down outposts."