Livni Angers Regional Leaders in Visit to Ofra

A Knesset committee visit to Ofra on Sunday brought out some of the emotions surrounding the terror attacks which have rocked the nation in recent days.

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Zionist Camp) infuriated one of the regional leaders when she argued that security needs have to be decided separately from the issues of annexation, building and legalizing outposts in Yehudah and Shomron.

“Don’t use security to advance your ideology. We’ll continue to provide security to the residents. The argument about what should be done to separate or annex is conducted separately, not against the background of terrorism and not against the background of the attacks,” Livni said during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee tour of the outpost where a terror shooting took place last week.

Her words angered many of those present, according to Arutz Sheva, but perhaps none more than Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.

“Why do you hate me? Why do you hate us? What have we done to you?” Dagan shouted at Livni. “You would never speak like that about residents of communities near the Gaza Strip or about anyone else.”

When others urged him to “calm down,” he refused, and added that Livni says such things because she “needs the votes of the extreme left, that’s her base.”

Livni insisted that “We’re all feeling this pain. We all back the IDF in its mission to secure every citizen in Yehudah and Shomron, and to do what is needed. Don’t confuse security with ideology, don’t argue that your ideology is related to security.”