Netanyahu accosted by pullout-plan opponents

Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to be rushed away from a wedding celebration at Kfar Chabad, east of Tel Aviv, on Thursday night after a group of disengagement-plan opponents verbally assaulted him and slashed a tire on his car. The youths involved, who were not residents of the ultra-Orthodox community, approached the minister as he was leaving the event, and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to evacuate Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. A group, shouting that „Jewish blood is not cheap,” tried to assault Netanyahu. Upon reaching his car, Netanyahu noticed one of its tires had been slashed and he left the wedding in another vehicle. Netanyahu said after the incident that „with all the understanding I have for these people’s distress, there is no room for violence in the public debate.” Police detained the cameraman who filmed the wedding, hoping to identify the would-be assailants in the footage, Israel Radio reported. Menahem Brod, the Chabad religious community’s spokesman, said the attackers were not members of the community, nor do they reside in Kfar Chabad. This was the second such incident this week. Education Minister Limor Livnat was accosted earlier inthe week by Kach supporters at a memorial for Yair Stern, commander of the pre-state underground movement Lehi, and had to be whisked away from the Tel Aviv cemetery by security personnel. BPI-info