Israel Matzav

Jewish Home to quit government?

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett is threatening to quit the government (and take his party with him) in the event that it approves the release of hundreds of terrorists - including 'Israeli Arabs' - and a 'settlement freeze' in exchange for continuing 'talks' and the release of Jonathan Pollard.

"Israel has been facing a new situation in recent days with the Palestinian appeal to the UN which flagrantly violated all the agreements with them since the Oslo Accords until today,” said Bennett.

“The emerging deal, if it includes the release of murderers with Israeli citizenship, harms Israeli sovereignty, and not only that - it is done being when the Palestinians have not cancelled their requests to join international organizations,” he added.

"Therefore, if a proposal for release of Israeli murderers comes before the Cabinet, the Jewish Home will oppose it,” Bennett declared. “If the proposal will pass - the Jewish Home will resign from the government, which frees murderers with Israeli citizenship. Enough is enough.

“On this evening of Passover, it is important to remember that we went from slavery to freedom so we that we can have an Israeli legal system which will protect the citizens of Israel - not a system that is being blackmailed by a gang of terrorists and which releases murderers,” said Bennett. “This is an act of extortion and surrender to terrorism which we cannot accept.

“I wish the citizens of Israel a Happy Passover, and I hope that our brother Jonathan Pollard will be released soon, but not in the immoral way that is this currently being suggested,” he concluded.

The Jerusalem Post reported last week that Bennett had issued similar threats to Netanyahu then but had purposely confined them to private conversations with the prime minister. When talks became more serious on Thursday, Bennett upgraded his threat to a public warning.

Anonymous 'Likud officials' are telling Bennett to go right ahead and leave.

"We are not keeping anybody in the government by force," the officials declared.

"This is a well-known method used by Bennett: to make threats when it is clear to him that they are false threats that will not come to fruition," they added.

But other Likud officials, who were speaking on the record, had a very different take. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin warned Netanyahu on Thursday not to return to a diplomatic deal that would involve the mass release of terrorist murderers and restraining construction in Judea and Samaria, if the Palestinians did not withdraw their petitions to join UN bodies.

Signing such a deal under the current conditions could cause political shock waves and lead to elections, the deputy minister said.

Elkin thus became the first high-ranking Likud politician to warn of early elections, four days after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman spoke at Sunday’s Jerusalem Post Conference in New York about the possibility of Israel going to the polls.

“Returning to the deal would project weakness and give the Palestinians a reward for their stubbornness,” Elkin said. “It would result in them attacking Israel internationally even more. We cannot turn the other cheek when they spit at us in the face. Surrendering to Palestinian hostility has only brought upon us disasters.”

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) said he intends to resign from his post if a diplomatic arrangement to extend the talks with the Palestinians is reached. But other politicians are not expected to follow suit, because the deal would be softened by the inclusion of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.

According to a new poll, the Likud would gain in new elections... but so would Jewish Home. 

The Dialogue Institute survey, published in Friday morning's Haaretz, shows that Jewish Home would tie with Labor as the second-biggest party in the Israeli government, in the event that elections were held today. 

Likud-Beytenu would receive 37 seats - compared to 32 in a previous poll, the survey reveals. Meanwhile Jewish Home would receive 15, as opposed to 12 in the last poll. Likewise Labor would receive 15 seats, down from 16 in the last poll.

Yesh Atid would remain stable from the last poll at 14 seats, and both Shas and Meretz would drop a seat from the previous poll, from 10 to 9. United Torah Judaism would gain an extra seat, for a total of 7, Hatnua would lose two seats and have only 3, instead of 5 in the last poll, and Kadima would not pass the threshold.

All of the Arab parties would retain their previous projected number of seats: Raam-Taal - 5, Hadash - 4, and Balad - 3.

Yes, but if these were the results, Likud, Labor and Yesh Atid could make a coalition without anyone else (assuming that Likud's MK's were willing to stay on board)....

As for American hostage Jonathan Pollard, yes, he could be released over the weekend.

Well-placed sources involved in efforts to bring about Pollard’s release said they were cautiously optimistic about the diplomatic developments and were hoping to welcome him home to Jerusalem. His medical condition required him to leave prison and seek urgent medical care in Israel, they said.

Should Pollard be allowed to fly to Israel in time for the Passover Seder, the last El Al flight that would arrive in time departs from New York at 7 p.m. local time on Sunday. Using a private plane or the government of Israel sending an airplane are also possibilities.

Hmmm....

I sure hope Bennett doesn't leave the government before the seder. He'd ruin a lot of really good Torah for the seder if he did.... והמבין יבין.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli elections, Jewish Home party, Jonathan Pollard, Likud party, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze, Yesh Atid party

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:44 AM