Naftali Bennett 370.
(photo credit:Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The diplomatic agreement Israel reached with the Palestinians in Oslo 20 years
ago and the concept of creating a Palestinian state are dead, Bayit Yehudi
leader Naftali Bennett wrote on his Facebook page late Tuesday
night.
Bennett recalled his shock when he heard as a soldier that
then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin had shaken hands with then-Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat. He said that the past two decades had proven that Rabin made a
grave mistake.
“I’m aware that the Israeli government is conducting
negotiations with Abu Mazen,” Bennett wrote about Palestinian Authority chairman
Mahmoud Abbas.
“I do not believe anything will come of [the talks] and
that is why I remain in this government.
That being said, it is my duty
to present the nation of Israel with the truth. I will do everything in my power
to prevent this disaster.”
Bennett said that although his party’s votes
against releasing Palestinian murderers from Israeli jails did not prevent the
prisoner release, there was still work that can be done to prevent future
mistakes.
“We need to truly convince the nation of Israel,” Bennett
wrote.
“The truth is that the idea of a Palestinian state within the
State of Israel is dead. The idea that most Israeli citizens took a chance on
during the 1990s has been proven as a killing machine.
Contrary to what
people say, there are quite a few alternatives to a Palestinian
state.”
Bennett posted the statement against the Oslo Accords the same
day that Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s negotiating team with
the Palestinians, said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should replace
Bayit Yehudi in the coalition with Labor in order to help the peace process.