Bayit Yehudi leader says does not believe anything will come of current Israeli-Palestinian talks, therefore remains in government.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANNaftali Bennett 370(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The diplomatic agreement Israel reached with the Palestinians in Oslo 20 years ago and the concept of creating a Palestinian state are dead, Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page late Tuesday night.Bennett recalled his shock when he heard as a soldier that then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin had shaken hands with then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He said that the past two decades had proven that Rabin made a grave mistake.“I’m aware that the Israeli government is conducting negotiations with Abu Mazen,” Bennett wrote about Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.“I do not believe anything will come of [the talks] and that is why I remain in this government.That being said, it is my duty to present the nation of Israel with the truth. I will do everything in my power to prevent this disaster.”Bennett said that although his party’s votes against releasing Palestinian murderers from Israeli jails did not prevent the prisoner release, there was still work that can be done to prevent future mistakes.“We need to truly convince the nation of Israel,” Bennett wrote.“The truth is that the idea of a Palestinian state within the State of Israel is dead. The idea that most Israeli citizens took a chance on during the 1990s has been proven as a killing machine.Contrary to what people say, there are quite a few alternatives to a Palestinian state.”Bennett posted the statement against the Oslo Accords the same day that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians, said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should replace Bayit Yehudi in the coalition with Labor in order to help the peace process.
