Bennett: Every time we give up land people killed

Bayit Yehudi leader pans president Peres's speech calling for two-state solution, saying "This is the time to say this is our land, it's not for sale;" requests that IDF protect West Bank residents from rock-throwing.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Naftali Bennett at cabinet meeting 370 (photo credit: Alex Kolomoisky/Pool/Yediot Aharonot)
Naftali Bennett at cabinet meeting 370
(photo credit: Alex Kolomoisky/Pool/Yediot Aharonot)
Withdrawal from land leads to deaths, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday, responding to President Shimon Peres' speech calling for a two-state solution.
"I value our president, but the concept of withdrawals failed and brought thousands of victims," Bennett said at a Bayit Yehudi faction meeting.
"Every time we give up land, people are killed," he added.
Bennett called for the government to declare "this is our land, and it is not for sale." The government's job is to provide security for its citizens, Bennett added, and the government is failing to do so in Judea and Samaria, where mothers and children in cars are pelted with rocks.
"The IDF needs to change its understanding of its job and realize that it is also responsible for protecting the 400,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria," he stated.
Bennett's comments came a day after Peres, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Jordan, called an immediate start to peace talks that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 lines and land swaps.
MK Isaac Herzog lauded Peres' speech at Monday's Labor faction meeting.
Referring to Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz's comments that Peres does not speak for the government, Herzog said that Steinitz "cannot give grades as someone who hid the NIS 40 billion debt." "The real problem is that our prime minister does not accept 1967 borders and the Arab Peace Plan," Herzog added.
On Sunday night, Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz criticized Steinitz and other right-wing politicians who spoke out against Peres.
"The right's lashing out at the president while he is on an official visit to Jordan is unprecedented and outrageous," Mofaz said. "It cannot be that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stands quiet and backs this bizarre, extremist behavior. I call for him to behave responsibly and put an end to this."