With Hebron plan, Bennett tries again to show he is not all talk
There is a long, arduous journey between the step Bennett took on Sunday, the first step toward formally planning the neighborhood, to the actual establishment of a neighborhood.
By HERB KEINONThousands gather around the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron for Shabbat Chayei Sarah.(photo credit: IDF)
Not knowing exactly how long he’ll have in his dream job, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett is determined, it seems, to make the most of it.On Sunday, Bennett instructed the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria to start the planning process of a new neighborhood in the long-contested wholesale market in Hebron connecting the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, and to send a letter to this effect to the Hebron Municipality.Or, as former IDF spokesman Avi Benayahu put it on Twitter: “It is not easy in the Defense Ministry to cram two years into two weeks.”Benayahu, no Bennett cheerleader, seems to be using the just over two years that Avigdor Liberman spent as defense minister as his benchmark.In two weeks, he tweeted, Bennett has already set a policy against returning the bodies of terrorists, demolished the homes of terrorists, changed the policy toward Gaza, increased the attacks against Iran in Syria, and has now established a new neighborhood in Hebron.Though he didn’t tweet it, Benayahu’s subtext seemed to be that Bennett is taking action, while others mostly talked.Truth be told, Bennett’s directive to the Civil Administration to promote the planning process of the neighborhood is a long, long way – as Benayahu wrote – from establishing a new neighborhood in Hebron.There is a long, arduous journey between the step Bennett took on Sunday, the first step toward formally planning the neighborhood, to the actual establishment of a neighborhood. Along the way, plans have to be approved, tenders issued, court appeals deflected, existing structures torn down and new buildings built.This is a process that will take many, many years, and a process future defense ministers – some who may not share Bennett’s ideological bent – will have to approve a number of times along the way.And it is also a process for which Israel will be censured each step of the way. Each step in this drawn-out process will be announced, and each step will trigger vehement condemnation from the Palestinians, the Left and much of the world.
Liberman announced last November that he was going to promote the plan, but it fell on Bennett to actually do so.Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not take a concrete step to build the neighborhood in the year that he served as prime minister, following Liberman’s resignation last November. Indeed, he disappointed settlement leaders in September – just days before the second election of the year – when he was the first prime minister to visit the city in over two decades, but said nothing about moving this project forward.Bennett now has taken such a step, and will surely use it as a way to promote himself and his New Right Party if, as it seems likely, the country will go to a third election in March.The failure of Netanyahu to form a government after the April election gave Bennett and Ayelet Shaked – who failed to make it into the Knesset – a second chance. They used that chance well and secured Knesset seats in the September election.Bennett then used the opportunity that the second election afforded him to secure the defense minister position, and now – ensconced in that job – he has shown he is hell-bent on making his mark.Sunday’s move infuriated the Palestinians, antagonized the Left, and will not sit well with many capitals around the world. But none of them will, or is eligible to, vote for him anyhow. The Israelis in Hebron, and their supporters on the Right, are a different story altogether – and it was to them that Bennett was appealing on Sunday.Never mind that this is just the first step in a process that will eventually wind through the courts and have to be approved time and time again. It’s a start, and when/if Bennett has to appeal to voters in a matter of weeks, he will surely use this as one of his strongest calling cards.
