PM Netanyahu's Remarks at the Start of the Weekly Cabinet Meeting 23.3.14

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Sunday, 23 March 2014), made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting: "Over the weekend our forces struck at a terrorist who had organized attacks on Israelis and was also planning attacks on innocent civilians.

I would like to commend the anti-terrorism unit, the IDF units involved, including the ultra-orthodox brigade, and the ISA for carrying out a very important operation in eliminating someone who endangered Israeli citizens. Our policy is to attack those who attack us and who are planning to attack us. Both were applicable in this case. At the same time, we also discovered a tunnel , a Hamas attack tunnel. These items underscore the importance of strict security procedures in any future settlement. 

Today, we will submit the government's plans for the coming year. The government has many achievements – in security, the economy, in advancing the periphery and linking the Negev and the Galilee to the center of the country, in moving centers of employment and activity from the center to the Negev and the Galilee, in railroads, highways, tunnels and interchanges, in creating a cyber center in Be'er Sheva and, of course, in many other projects.

One of the things that we are doing is improving environmental protection. Today, Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz will submit a plan for dealing with waste disposal in Arab, Bedouin and Druze communities. There are deficiencies there that have built up over many years, and we plan to deal with them. The minister will present this plan.

Science Minister Yaakov Peri will present Science Day. I remind you that Israel invests more in research and development than any other country relative to its GDP, almost 5%. We call on the giant companies to continue coming to the State of Israel and opening research and development centers here. The infrastructure of Israel's competitive ability, which is based on innovation and technology, in the end, rests on science. I add that science rests on mathematics. Education in the sciences and mathematics are at the root of our ability to compete in the world of the present and the future. Therefore, I ascribe great importance to developing this idea and this concept among Israeli children and parents. Parents who send their children to study science will help both their children and the country."