PMO officials: If Naftali Bennett does not
apologize, he will risk the current composition of the coalition •
"Israel does not have to accept every American position," PM Benjamin
Netanyahu says about peace talks in INSS speech.
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu: "We will soon know if it is possible to continue negotiations
with the Palestinians"
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Photo credit: Yehoshua Yosef  |
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Prime Minister's Office officials informed
Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett on Wednesday morning that he
must apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for recent critical
comments he made about the prime minister, or face serious consequences.
According the PMO officials, Bennett harmed
the interests of the settlements with his insolent and irresponsible
behavior. "No one will teach Netanyahu what it is to love of Israel, and
what it is to protect the security interests of Israeli citizens," the
officials said.
"If Bennett does not apologize for his
remarks, he will risk the current composition of the coalition," they
said, signalling that Bennett and Habayit Hayehudi could be replaced in
the government.
In a speech at a Institute for National
Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Netanyahu refrained
from specifically addressing his ongoing feud
with Bennett, highlighting instead the gaps between the Israeli and
American positions in the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians.
"The Americans work to create American
positions, and if these are presented I want to emphasize that these are
not Israel's positions. Israel does not have to accept every American
position," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu told the audience that throughout
the negotiations Israel had insisted on two primary issues. "Our goal is
to arrive at a stable agreement, which can only happen with the
negation of the right of return and by recognizing the national homeland
of the Jewish people. This is the foundation of any deal," he said.
The prime minister added that he did not know
whether "the Palestinian leadership is ready to contend with the
concessions it will have to make. After all, it's always about the
concessions Israel needs to make, and not about the concessions the
Palestinians need to make for an agreement to last and provide the
chance for a life of peace and security here.
"After five years of controlled, level-headed
and responsible navigation, we will soon know if it is possible to
continue negotiations with the Palestinians," he said.
How soon? Officials in Jerusalem are preparing
for another visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry next week, with
an American framework deal in hand that calls for an extension of the
deadline for negotiations.
The Americans have emphasized that the
document is predicated on "understandings between the two sides," rather
than being an American initiative. According to some of the
speculation, the document will be "difficult for both sides."
As mentioned earlier, in his speech on
Tuesday, Netanyahu chose to ignore his ongoing spat with Bennett and the
anonymous Prime Minister's Office official's quote that sparked it.
According to the quote in question, Netanyahu believes that Israeli
settlers should have the right to remain in their homes in a future
Palestinian state.
In his own speech at the INSS on Tuesday,
Bennett also did not specifically mention Netanyahu by name, but did
mention the issue that prompted their feud.
Bennett said, "In recent days a new idea has
come up that Jews will live and stay where they are, but under
Palestinian sovereignty. So I will answer simply: This will not happen,
and it cannot happen.
"Do you know why Palestinians cannot rule over
Israelis? Because they will kill them. How do I know this? Because it
already happened, in Hebron," said Bennett, referencing the Palestinian
massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929. The Habayit Hayehudi chairman also
mentioned the gruesome lynching of two Israel Defense Forces reservists
in Ramallah in 2000, saying, "When an Arab citizen goes to Herzliya he
comes out alive and well, and that is a good thing. If a Jew were to
mistakenly enter Jenin, they would kill him. Everyone knows this."
He added: "If one Jew had remained in Gush
Katif, they would have burned him, too, like they did to the synagogues.
It has been said that it is possible to solve the security problems.
These problems, too, are dwarfed by the significance of relinquishing
Jews to live under Palestinian sovereignty. After all, we each came here
in the name of the Zionist message. Without sovereignty, there is no
Zionism."
Bennett also went on to voice his adamant
objection to surrendering territory within the framework of a future
peace deal with the Palestinians, and said, "Within the perspective of
thousands of years we are a tiny blip in the history of the Jewish
people. Our forefathers and the children of our children will not
forgive the Israeli leader who gives up land and divides our capital.
There are hundreds of territorial conflicts in the world; here of all
places is the most important? We have become the West's testing ground."
Following Bennett's speech, the Prime
Minister's Office intensified its criticism of the Habayit Hayehudi
chairman, saying "the government can also exist without him."
PMO officials said, "After all of Bennett's
claims, it is unclear why he continues to stay glued to his seat in the
government. A government without Bennett will also continue to care for
the security of the citizens of Israel."
According to PMO officials, Bennett's
persistence in revisiting the quote from earlier in the week shifts the
attention from the real debate. "Bennett is trying to divert the
discussion from his rash and irresponsible reaction playing into the
hands of Palestinians and damaging Israel's interests," said the
officials.
They added that Bennett's comments "hurt
Israel's ability to present the Palestinian demand of removing all the
Jews from their future state as racist and anti-Semitic."
In an interview with Kol Barama radio station
on Tuesday, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel mentioned the
tension between Netanyahu and Bennett, saying, "Perhaps Bennett needed
to say what he wanted differently, but it is certainly not possible to
accept such a proposal in which Jews will live under the [sovereignty of
the] al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades."
Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich, meanwhile, said
in an interview with Israel Radio on Tuesday that during a meeting with
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in May 2013, the PA leader
considered the possibility of leaving certain Jewish communities and
outposts intact in a future Palestinian state.
"In my meeting with [Abbas] at the Muqataa [PA
government compound in Ramallah], during which [chief Palestinian
negotiator] Saeb Erekat was also present for part of the time, Abbas
discussed the idea of Israeli residents living under Palestinian
sovereignty," Yachimovich said.
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