As protesters boo outside, Netanyahu snips ribbon at Tel Aviv light rail opening ceremony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cuts a ribbon at the opening ceremony for the first leg of the long-awaited Tel Aviv light rail, as anti-overhaul protesters gather and boo outside.

“This line will serve everyone — those who support us and those who oppose us,” he says in comments at one terminus of the line in Petah Tikva. “This is a celebratory day for Israel.”

“There are always obstacles,” Netanyahu says. “They have to be overcome. When people, some of them behind us here (a reference to the protesters), told us not to open up the economy, we opened it and succeeded. They told us not extract gas from the sea. We extracted it and succeeded. They told us not to build the Egyptian border fence. We built it and saved the country [from an influx of economic migrants]. They told us it is impossible to achieve peace with Arab states without solving the Palestinians [issue]. We did it and we’ll solve the Palestinians. That too.

“We did all those things, and today we’re connecting the country — between cities, inside cities, and between states,” he says, alluding to a planned project he spoke of last month to extend a fast-rail route to Saudi Arabia.

The anti-overhaul protesters are being kept outside the event, and are shouting and booing as he speaks. The prime minister raises his voice to ensure he is heard.