Land of Israel lobby says they won't vote if there's no building
The Knesset's Land of Israel caucus, a predominantly right-wing lobby of 35 MKs and public figures, threatened on Tuesday to halt support for the government during Knesset votes if there is a freeze on settlement construction.
With the slogan, "No building=No voting," the members are also split over opposition to to negotiations with the Palestinians in scheduled renewed talks led by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The caucus held an emergency summit over Kerry's announcement Friday of new negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a meeting attended by MKs and mayors from West Bank settlements. The mayors accused Netanyahu of merely paying "lip-service" to building new settlement units.
Caucus chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) told the meeting on Tuesday that the decision to release Palestinian prisoners was incompatible with the Israeli demand for negotiations without preconditions.
He said that there was no reason for the world to think that the release of murderers advances peace, while building kindergartens harms it.
He said that the caucus was not against negotiations in principle, but that the process had to have set goals, namely, keeping all of the land of Israel and its settlements under Israeli sovereignty while maintaining security.I don't recall how many of the 35 are coalition members, but this many MK's refusing to vote could lead to unexpected glitches in the government's efforts to legislate. If this threat becomes real, look for the opposition to turn as many votes as possible into 'no confidence' votes that could bring the government down (just about any vote in the Knesset can be declared a 'no confidence' vote).
What could go wrong?
Labels: Judea and Samaria construction, negotiations without preconditions, settlement freeze
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:20 PM
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