Regavim: Bennett, Shaked, Agreed to Hand the Negev Over to the Bedouin

By David Israel, JEWISH PRESS

The details of the coalition agreements publicized in the media Monday night (Lapid’s Coalition Deal Keeps Netanyahu Out, Handcuffs Bennett, Favors Arabs, Reform) revealed that Naftali Bennett and Gideon Sa’ar, who blamed Netanyahu for his failure of imposing law and order in the Negev, are not only failing to provide solutions – they are exacerbating the problem, the Regavim movement said Tuesday.

According to Mivzak Live (????? ?????: ‘?????’ ???? ?? ????????? ????? ??????? ?????? ??????), in recent weeks, Yamina held consultations with the Regavim movement on Negev issues. Regavim representatives answered Yamina’s questions with the understanding that the Bedouin Settlements Authority would be included in Ayelet Shaked’s Interior Ministry. The same Regavim officials were led to believe that Yamina shared their concern that the current situation in the Negev is serious and dangerous, and the trends of lawlessness that have been established over the past decade in the Negev must be stopped.

An irate Meir Deutsch, Regavim’s CEO, said on Tuesday: “In recent weeks, we have been talking to Yamina and New Hope in order to make sure that the situation [in the Negev] does not get worse. We were reassured that the Bedouin Settlements Authority is in the hands of the Yamina. It was a promise. All the understandings we reached were founded on the commitment that the Regulation Authority, which determines the planning, regulation, and enforcement policy in the Negev, would be in the hands of Ayelet Shaked, and not in the hands of [Ra’am MK] Said al-Harumi who can overthrow the government at any given moment.”

MK Al-Kharomi is the chairman of the High Steering Committee of the Negev Arabs, the political entity representing the interests of the very squatter Bedouin communities that Bennett promised would receive proper regulation under his rule. Now, instead of moving the authority over Bedouin settlements to the interior ministry, it will likely be run by the welfare ministry which will be headed by a Yesh Atid minister, and Yesh Atid is tied in a coalition agreement with Ra’am to protect the rights of the Bedouin squatters.

With Al-Kharomi having this much influence over the fate of the Negev Bedouin—since Ra’am’s very commitment to support the Lapid government depends on it, Bennett might as well have surrendered to his cat the family’s entire supply of cream.

“This basic obligation has been breached,” said Regavim CEO Deutsch. “If Shaked and Bennett, Sa’ar, and Elkin did not live up to this commitment, let them not hide behind us. They’ve shown themselves as neither right nor credible.”

Regavim’s Tuesday’s press release warns that “Aside from approving the whitewashing of thousands of illegal structures on about 2,700 acres of land to create ‘three new communities,’ the coalition agreements do not stipulate what will happen to the rest of the illegal Bedouin squatters’ camps nine months from now, and neither Bennett’s Yemina Party nor Sa’ar’s New Hope Party will have the ability to influence the outcome in a government kept afloat by Mansour Abbas and the Islamist Ra’am Party,”

According to Regavim, “the coalition agreements place both the Bedouin Settlement Authority and the Knesset’s Interior Committee—the two key players in the Negev issue—under the complete control of the left-wing bloc and Ra’am.”

“This situation has unparalleled destructive potential, setting a course for total abandonment of the Negev while rewarding rampant illegal Bedouin construction that imperils the healthy development of the Negev, home of the vast majority of Israel’s land reserves,” Regavim argues.

June 8, 2021 | 5 Comments »
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  1. An article in the Jewish Press summarizing a press release by the head of the organization Regavim, which works to combat the Bedouin’s illegal occupation of state land in the Negev and to protect Jewish farmers who prperty is regularly stolen by Bedouin.

    New Govt. Coalition Agreement Abandons Negev, Regavim Warns
    Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency28 Sivan 5781 – June 8, 2021
    Photo Credit: Josh Hasten

    Israel Uncensored: Regulating Bedouin Settlement in the Negev
    Israel Uncensored: Regulating Bedouin Settlement in the Negev
    The details of the coalition agreements publicized in the media Monday evening reveal that Naftali Bennett and Gideon Saar, members of the emerging coalition and of right-wing parties, who blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failure of governance in the Negev, are “not only failing to provide solutions but are exacerbating the problem,” the Regavim Movement warned.

    Bennett and Saar have pledged in the coalition agreements to approach the Attorney General and demand that he cancel all fines and sanctions on illegal Arab construction. The agreement also calls for the freezing enforcement against illegal construction for almost four years, and the freezing of the existing demolition orders for all illegal structures in the Negev that were built until the beginning of 2021. Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamist Raam party and a member of the emerging coalition, will be appointed a deputy minister and will receive half a billion shekels for distribution at his discretion.

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    Furthermore, the coalition agreements place both the Bedouin Settlement Authority and the Knesset’s Interior Committee, the key actors on the Negev issue, under the complete control of the left-wing bloc and Raam.

    “Aside from approving the whitewashing of thousands of illegal structures on about 11,000 dunams of land to create ‘three new communities,’ the coalition agreements do not stipulate what will happen to the rest of the illegal Bedouin squatters’ camps nine months from now, and neither Bennett’s Yemina Party nor Saar’s New Hope Party will have the ability to influence the outcome in a government kept afloat by Mansour Abbas and the Islamist Raam Party,” Regavim, which is dedicated to the protection of Israel’s national lands and resources, warned.

    “This situation has unparalleled destructive potential, setting a course for total abandonment of the Negev while rewarding rampant illegal Bedouin construction that imperils the healthy development of the Negev, home of the vast majority of the State of Israel’s land reserves,” the organization warned.

    Regavim has repeatedly warned that the state has lost its grip in the south and sovereignty in the southern region of Israel has been relinquished to an autonomous entity established by the Bedouins in the Negev. More and more illegal enclaves continue to spring up throughout the territory – and all the while, the Israeli government continues to turn a blind eye.

    According to data presented to the Knesset in December 2019, in the two years following the implementation of a new law, common construction offenses were reduced by 41%, and serious construction offenses were slashed by 75%. The freezing of these laws would reverse this trend.

  2. This is an extract from a column in today’s Arutz Sheva by a New York journalist and pro-Israel activist named Sarah Lehmann. She describes a fund-raising visit by Bennett to New York in 2012, in which he gave a talk at a dinner for him arranged by Lehmann. Read her whole article to see what he said at the dinner, and immediately afterwards when she interviewed him.

    Bennett’s statements then were classic Jewish-nationalist, Right positions. But Lehmann contrasts what he said then with the positions of his new coalition partners, and some shifts in his own positions beginning this April. Very disturbing reading by an old acquaintance of Bennett.

    That was then; this is now

    Trampling on promises as he claws his way to the top, Bennet’s mandate, at 6% of Israel’s vote, is now half the size of what he called Netanyahu’s “lowest point” years ago. And polls show that two-thirds of that 6% reject the deal Bennett has made with Lapid. With miniscule support from Israel’s citizens, Netanyahu rightly calls Bennett’s bid “the biggest election scam in history” and the “fraud of the century”.

    The Bennett I listened to a decade ago was both idealistic and sensible. He spoke with conviction about not bending one’s principles for political gain. About keeping one’s word. About having the backbone to resist pressure when fighting for what is best for the Jewish State.

    Bennett was right to have told me nine years ago that, “If there’s one lesson we have learned from our history it’s that we cannot trust anyone”. But that lesson should have been directed at himself. In what can only be explained as political greed, Bennett broke all the vows he made within the span of a few weeks, some brazenly made on television interviews.

    “In no way will I give my hand to a government led by Yair Lapid, not in a regular way or with a rotation, because I am a right-wing man and Lapid is a man of the left and I don’t sell my values.” Days after this vow, Bennet joined forces with Lapid’s party. And with Meretz, whose leader Nitzan Horowitz who has agreed to Israeli soldiers being tried at the Hague and who is poised to be in the security cabinet. And with Labor, whose Reform rabbi party member praises J Street. All positions Bennett vehemently denounced in our interview.

    Worse, he joined with Ra’am Party’s Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Southern Islamic Movement. A few weeks ago, Bennett promised never to join forces with Abbas. Today he praises him and pledges billions of shekels to “integrate” the Bedouin sector, legalize almost all Bedouin villages in the Negev and extend a freeze on enforcement against illegal Bedouin construction in the Negev. Bennett couldn’t have made the Supreme Court and Ben Gurion University prouder.

    In 2012, Bennett declared “the two-state solution is dead”. But he has now anchored himself to the very parties, chiefly among them Labor and Meretz, who advocate what Bennett termed “a passion to give up land”. A few short years after our interview, Netanyahu rejected the idea of a two-state solution and concluded that “there is no partner for peace”. Bibi has not backtracked on that conclusion ever since.

    But the would-be prime minister is aiming to lead a coalition with a leftist majority committed to the two-state solution and opposed to settlements and annexation. So much for annexing Area C, with bedfellows who utterly reject Bennett’s dream “to break the glass ceiling that Israel can’t declare sovereignty over Yehuda and Shomron”.

    Indeed, senior officials from the bloc have declared intentions of renewing negotiations toward a two-state solution as soon as the new government is sworn into office. Meretz’s Esawi Frej, who is positioned to serve as regional cooperation minister in the new coalition, is quoted as saying that the first thing he plans to do upon entering office is to travel to Ramallah to meet with the PA’s Abbas.

    Nine years ago, Bennett was adamant about maintaining Israel’s opposition to a nuclear Iran and declared “no Israeli prime minister can take our fate and outsource our existence to an American president”. But political expediency has watered down his position so that Bennett now expresses full faith in Biden and said in an interview with Israeli’s Channel 20 in April, “”We need to work with the administration to craft the conditions for a return to the [2015 nuclear] deal.”

    In a Politico piece, analysts sum up the bonds Bennett has placed on himself. “He’s likely to lower the temperature with Washington, temporarily subvert Netanyahu’s obsession with blocking the Iran nuclear accord, and try to refrain from provocative actions towards Palestinians certain to rile his centrist and left-wing partners and collapse the fragile government.” Netanyahu is right to fear that Bennett will not be able to stand up to the pressure regarding Iran.

    If there was one major theme that Bennet reiterated over and over, both in our recorded conversation and afterwards, it was his belief that Israel is fighting over the “battle for Israel’s soul”. His abandonment of every religious party, by embracing secular and leftist cohorts, especially Labor, Meretz, and Yisrael Beitenu, belies his own statements. And has led to those religious party leaders to brand him “evil”.
    Bennett the man concluded his interview with me by saying, “we have to know what we’re fighting for”. But if a man breaks his promises so that he can only be judged by his actions, it would seem that Bennett the politician is fighting for himself.

    In designing this so called “change bloc”, Bennett declares that his goal is “change” the status quo. But all he really is doing is changing his own words. Again.

    Sara Lehmann is a NY columnist and interviewer with Hamodia. Her writings can be found at saralehmann.com.

  3. From Arutz Sheva:

    Martin Oliner: Bennett lied his way to the premiership
    Bennett is responsible for bringing down the Right and its iconic prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Opinion.

    Martin Oliner
    Martin Oliner
    Israel’s incoming prime minister Naftali Bennett justified breaking his campaign promises by saying that had he kept them, Israel would be going to another election.

    That lie justifying his lies proves that Bennett will not be starting his term on the Right foot.

    I don’t know if Bennett has a Right foot – and if he ever really did.

    But Bennett is responsible for bringing down the Right and its iconic prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

    He could have joined a rotation with Netanyahu, who even offered a three-man rotation as prime minister with New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar. But Bennett preferred from day one after the election to go with the Left.

    Bennett promised that he would not join a government in which Yair Lapid would serve as prime minister, even in a rotation. He will end up serving as prime minister in a government built by Lapid and controlled by Lapid and then under Lapid as prime minister in the unlikely scenario that the government lasts until August 2023.

    “In no way will I give my hand to a government led by Yair Lapid, not in a regular way or with a rotation, because I am a right-wing man and Lapid is a man of the Left and I don’t sell my values,” Bennett said, knowing full well that it was a lie when he said it.

    Bennett has a history of being made a fool by Netanyahu. Lapid is doing it this time.

    He promised that he would not sit in a coalition with Meretz. But its leader Nitzan Horowitz, who said Israeli soldiers should be on trial at the Hague, will be in the security cabinet, deciding issues of life and death. There will also be an Arab minister from the party.

    Another coalition partner, Labor, also has extremists in Ibtisam Mara’ana, who bragged about driving through the siren on Memorial Day, and Gilad Kariv, an activist Reform rabbi who is fond of provocations and J Street.

    Its leader Merav Michaeli will be minister of transportation. Will the roads stop again on the pre-67 border?

    Bennett also promised not to join a government backed in any way by Ra’am, the United Arab list and its leader, Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Southern Islamic Movement, which is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, after giving the Brotherhood a say in his policies, Bennett is calling Abbas a courageous leader and pledging billions to his pet causes in order to build a minority government.

    When Bennett said during Operation Guardian of the Walls that the government could not take steps that needed to be taken in mixed cities with Abbas in the government, he was absolutely right. Was he being truthful?

    Bennett’s party is called Yamina (Rightward), and the people have indeed moved to the Right, while Bennett has ironically moved to the Left.

    He lost his integrity by putting his own personal good over that of the country and a significant majority of its people, especially his own voters.

    Who does Bennett represent anymore? What does he stand for anymore?

    He and his coalition partners do not agree on anything other than hatred of Netanyahu.

    It is true that Netanyahu made too many enemies over his many years in power and Bennett took advantage of that to become prime minister. Netanyahu has mistreated the politicians who served under him and did not build up a successor who could have taken over had he decided to do the right thing and stand aside to keep the Right in power, with a coalition of 80 mandates.

    Perhaps the one positive from forming this government is that it could ensure that with Netanyahu removed, the Right will head all governments after this one in the foreseeable future. But then again, it makes sense that the man who made Israel into the vaccination nation, kept the country safe and brought Israel peace with five Muslim countries without giving anything up should be heralded, not replaced.

    The world is becoming a scarier place, and Israel needs Netanyahu more than ever to deal with it. How will Israel tell the world not to go back to the terrible Iran deal if its own foreign minister, Yair Lapid, supported it? How will Israel deal with the challenges of Joe Biden’s administration without the man Biden calls “my friend Bibi?”

    This is not the time for Israel to be experimenting with inexperienced leaders.

    Bennett and Lapid announced that they formed a government half an hour before the deadline. Had the deadline passed, there would have been three weeks in which a right-wing government could have been formed to avoid another election.

    But going to an election is certainly preferable to having a left-wing government that the people of Israel clearly did not want the last time they went to the polls. In the final analysis: Sooner or later a fifth election is inevitable.

    Martin Oliner is co-president of the Religious Zionists of America- Mizrachi, chairman of the Center for Righteousness and Integrity, and a committee member of the Jewish Agency. He was appointed by former President Donald Trump as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The views expressed are his own. Martinoliner@gmail.com.