PM Netanyahu demands apology from Bennett

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.

Shlomo Cesana, Mati Tuchfeld, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "We will soon know if it is possible to continue negotiations with the Palestinians" | 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.