Bennett supported Bibi on the building freeze

By Ted Belman

Struk1We all have heard that Netanyahu was under great pressure to impose a long term freeze on construction east of the greenline and even in Jerusalem. I have commented that Bennett went along with this because there was no hullabalu. It seemed to me that the freeze should have been enough to bring the government down.

NoW MK Orly Struck who is part of the Tekuma / National Union faction of Bayit Yahudi, said Jewish Home Turning into Likud B. In discussing the possible split, she confirmed that:

A point of disagreement is the building freeze in Judea and Samaria: “There was a decision by the faction to protest in front of [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and walk out of votes in the plenum as long as there was a freeze in Judea and Samaria.” This, she added, was meant to drive home to Netanyahu that for the Jewish Home, a freeze is a red line. The decision was dragged out until in the end the disagreement led to open conflict between Minister [Uri} Ariel and Bennett.”

But that was not the only thing that is contentious.

MK Struk explained that the party is being “overrun” by representatives who do not belong to the religious Zionist sector, much less the hardali (hareidi religious Zionist) stream. The party is thus turning into a Likud B, she said.

“I say with regret that there are more and more signs that Naftali Bennett is not interested in Tekuma and Jewish Home as a united party,” she elaborated. “We functioned together in an excellent way in the last Knesset and while it is true that there are ideological gaps, they can be bridged with mechanims and the same common work methods.”

Struk opined that people near Bennett leaked to the secular press that Tekuma is insisting that the party take instructions from a “council of sages” – but explained that the rabbis in question are from all streams, that their position is a purely advisory one with decisions made by the faction, and that the rabbis have been advising the party for two years already.

Bennett, we know, wants the party to appeal to both religious and secular Israelis. Perhaps he will agree that a building freeze crosses the red line.

In his duel with Indyk he said part of the problem is that “we’re inconsistent. You can’t say that you favor a Palestinian state and then build communities there.” What he is saying is that Israel must abandon the TSS and keep building.

December 15, 2014 | 5 Comments »

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5 Comments / 5 Comments

  1. @ Bear Klein:
    BK, from my reading about this obviously puffed-up matter, your concise response closely fit mine. All this is typical factionalism at its most tawdry level.

    Let’s everyone in Jewish Israel get on with assembling a new government that will:

    1) End all Jewish development freezes in all lands administered by the Israeli government, including and especially Area C of Shomron and Yehuda.

    2) Abandon all remaining pretense of useless negotiation with anybody regarding the splitting of Eretz-Yisrael into separate Arab and Jewish states.

    3) Work to assert the independence of the Jewish nation and the Jewish state from the European Union, NATO, the United Nations Organization, and the USA.

    4) Work diligently to develop strong trade, military hardware development, and possible joint defense policies with Russia, China, India, Brazil, Argentina and English speaking countries that do not wish to align themselves with Israel’s enemies.

    Life is simple and frequently rewarding, when you have a specific planned goal, and stick to it. And I am sure that is what HaShem would have instructed Moshe during his visit to the top of that mountain, had either of them predicted the modern State of Israel. Or maybe it was so predicted, and I am just not aware of it, because I know nothing about Talmud.

    Arnold Harris
    Mount Horeb WI

  2. Struk is being two faced. She also did NOT walk out of Knesset and resign during the freeze. She blasting Bennett now because her and Ariel want more power in Bayit Yehudi. This is about personal power not ideology as her Ariel are saying.

    Politics all over the world including Israel is a version of warfare with words being the bullets.

  3. @ yamit82:
    I have seen incredible political whorehouses in several places I lived at. The one we enjoy right now here takes the cake. Everything and everybody is thrown into the pestilent cauldron called “israeli demockratiah” from where they are spewed out every which way, joining, splitting, forming, dismantling. misleading, lying…
    As a spectacle it is fascinating. As a harbinger of a future, terrifying.
    Is that the best we have to offer and the best we can hope for? OH VEY!

  4. A building freeze for EVERYBODY may be acceptable under specific conditions.
    A building freeze such as the one instituted under Netanyahu’s rule is discriminatory against the Jewish people and our rights and must not be tolerated.
    A firm action is in order to ferret out both Bennett’s and Netanyahu’s position to now remove the freeze completely.
    Do not vote for them if they do not perform on behalf of Jewish National rights. Immediately.