Long-Range Rockets Smuggled Into Gaza

April 13, 2005

In September 1993, during the fateful Knesset (Parliament) session in which the Oslo Accords were ratified, then Likud Knesset Member Moshe Katzav, now president of Israel, said, “Tell me please, Mr. Foreign Minister [Shimon Peres] and Mr. Defense Minister [Yitzhak Rabin, who was also prime minister]: How will you prevent a little van traveling within [Yasser] Arafat’s Yesha [Judea, Samaria, and Gaza] areas from loading up with Katyushas and shooting them toward the coastal cities? How will you prevent [Katyushas from being shot toward] Ashkelon, Netivot, Sderot, Ofakim, and Ashdod?” I

n 1995, Rabin said, “We know all the scare stories of the Likud. They promised [when the first Oslo agreement was signed] that there would be Katyushas from Gaza. It’s been a year already that the Gaza is mostly under PA [Palestinian Authority] control, and there haven’t been any Katyushas, and there won’t be any…The Likud is simply scared to death of peace, and for this reason is reacting in a truly childish manner.”

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