The comments on the right of the Political Security Cabinet’s decision to remove the magnetometers and cameras installed on Har Habayis come mainly from those who object to their removal.

Minister of Culture and Sports Miri Regev said that the decision of the Political-Security Cabinet to remove the metal detectors from Har Habayis is “an unfortunate decision, and we do not need to be an expert in security in order to understand that a magnetometer has a deterrent and security effect.” The Deputy Foreign Minister told Channel 2 News: I do not understand why the metal detector was removed. This is a mistaken decision.”

Also, Betzalel Smotrich attacked the cabinet’s decision and said: “The lowering of the magnetometers is a capitulation and surrender to terrorism.”

MK (Bayit Yehudi) Shuli Muallem-Refaeli said that “the cabinet’s decision is difficult and we will all regret it.”

“The Jordanian Kingdom, which needs Israel far beyond Israel needing Jordan has brought us down on all fours, and the Palestinians, including the Islamic movement, have proved to themselves that it is possible to achieve results through riots and terror.”

Above all, there is a declaration that we are not the sovereign on Har Habayis – the place for which the Jewish state was established here and not in Uganda,” she said. Muallem made a point of mentioning the ministers who objected to the move. “The ministers of Bayit Yehudi in the cabinet together with Minister Elkin [of Likud] understood exactly the implications and opposed the removal of the magnetometers, and unfortunately we were in a minority opinion.”

“The leadership has been discriminated against and provided a victory for terror and violence,” he said, adding that “the Arabs understand that a massacre of a Jewish family was worthwhile and can break us”, said MK Smotrich.

Smotrich predicted that the harm to deterrence would harm the long-term security of civilians: “The murderous attack by a despicable terrorist and the threats of continued violence changed Israel’s policy and folded the prime minister and the cabinet. The message to the Arab on the street and terrorists is that terror pays. The politicians preferred tonight to buy short-term quiet that will be registered in their name at the price of a mortal blow to the power of deterrence and a pledge of our secure future, with which those who come after them will have to contend.”

Smotrich added that he was “Happy to discover the leadership of ministers, Bennett and Shaked, and Elkin who, according to reports, preferred the security interest to populism and voted against the surrender process”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)