Israel Matzav: 'A Palestinian state will ruin Israel's economy'

Monday, January 20, 2014

'A Palestinian state will ruin Israel's economy'

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett preferred to go into a coalition with Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid rather than the Haredi parties. Bennett has reason to have second thoughts.

Lapid is insistent that Israel continue to 'negotiate' toward a 'Palestinian state.' He is willing to do 'anything' to make that happen. 'Anything' includes taking Leftist parties into the coalition instead of Bennett.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with his faction on Monday, Bennett is warning that a 'Palestinian state' will destroy Israel's economy. Bennett argues, correctly, that terror will cost our economy much more than a small amount of international opprobrium as reflected by the BDS movement.

Bennett spoke the same day that a group of Israeli business leaders en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland pressed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reach an agreement with the Palestinians in order to avoid international boycotts on Israel.

Using charts indicating Israel's economic growth through the years, Bennett said the economy did better when there were not Israeli concessions that led to terror attacks.

"Imagine what the economy of Israel would look like if one missile each day hit Shenkar Street in Herzliya Pituah," Bennett said. "What would the economy of Israel look like if once a year a missile launched from Judea and Samaria brings down a plane headed to Ben-Gurion Airport."

Bennett said that when he worked in hi-tech, nearly all his company's profits came from exports, so he was aware of what impact boycotts could have on business. But he said nevertheless, Israel should not give into pressure to make concessions to the Palestinians.

In response, Tzipi Livni accused Bennett of listening more to 'extremist rabbis' than to 'business leaders.'

"The economy and trade minister must decide if he represents all Israeli citizens or just residents of isolated settlements," Livni said.

Of course the 'Palestinians' aren't going to make 'peace' in return for only the 'isolated settlements.' Moreover, given that Israel's economy is controlled by 12-18 families, all of whom are extreme Leftists who gained control when the Labor party dictatorship was in power (1948-77), I'm not sure which 'business leaders' we have who could possibly be supportive of the 'settlement' enterprise.

Arutz Sheva adds more details of Bennett's speech:

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) warned Israel Monday that implementing a "two-state solution" by surrendering land in Judea and Samaria would ruin Israel's economy.

"Recently we've seen a lot of economic pressure on Israel, pressure which is escalating and pushing the State of Israel to divide our land and give it away - or suffer economic consequences," Bennett explained, during a Jewish Home party meeting. "But I say the opposite is true: dividing the Land of Israel would crush the Israeli economy."

Bennett demonstrated on a map what the borders would look like if Judea and Samaria were given to the Palestinian Authority (PA), showing that the region provides access for missiles to fall on the center of Israel, especially the Tel Aviv area.

...

The Economics Minister explained, "Do you know how I know this? Because my company has been there. 95% of my company is exports, and I know what it's like to lose a tender because I am Israeli, or because Israeli cities - Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - are being blown up [by suicide bombings]. I know what it means to feel that you must hide the fact that you're Israeli."

Bennett explained, "The Land of Israel has belonged to the people of Israel for thousands of years. This is a fact."

"But now, for 20 years that there has been a determination [by the international community] to divide our country and hand it over to the Palestinians - they just keep switching the reasons for it," he continued. "Once they told us it would bring peace; now we can't even believe in that. Later they said it would bring security - until they [Palestinian Arabs] began killing Israelis. Then they claimed it was a problem of demographics; now they've pulled the next argument - economic pressure."

"We have had economic pressures place upon us - I'm not denying it," Bennett fired. "There may be a budding boycott movement, but why should we give away our land because of it? Why should we divide Jerusalem because of that?"

Bennett called on the Prime Minister to "stand strong," and promised that "the people of Israel will stand behind" him if he did.

Bennett needs to learn some history: The 'international community' has been trying to divide the land for a lot longer than 20 years. Once, they even succeeded.

But most of all, Bennett needs to learn some political negotiating skills. Playing second fiddle to Yair Lapid in the coalition negotiations was the political mistake of a lifetime.

Labels: BDS, Binyamin Netanyahu, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, two-state solution, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid