A vote for Bayit Yehudi is a vote against the evacuation of West Bank
settlements, politician Orit Struck told a large auditorium of male yeshiva high
school pupils on Monday afternoon.
They had gathered in Yeshivat
HaShomron’s auditorium in the Karnei Shomron settlement to listen to Struck
(Bayit Yehudi) MK Michael Ben-Ari (Strong Israel) Rabbi Shai Peron (Yesh Atid)
and Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) explain their parties’ positions.
As
Struck spoke, Ben-Ari challenged her to clarify her party’s position on whether
a soldier should refuse orders to evacuate Jewish homes in Judea and
Samaria.
It should never get to that point, Struck answered.
The
2005 withdrawal from Gaza was a breakdown of the political system, she
said.“Parliamentarians betrayed the promises they made to the public when they
were chosen for the Knesset,” she said.“They chose to sacrifice the land of
Israel.”
As a result, soldiers were faced with the question of evacuating
settlements.
“This is not supposed to happen, and we will ensure that the
political system won’t break down and soldiers won’t have to deal with this
question,” Struck said.
“We will be there for you on this point first,”
she said to resounding applause.
Edelstein defended his party’s record
with regard to West Bank settlements.
He promised the students that he
would never make use of a phrase, “Things that you see from here, you do not see
from there.” Former prime minister Ariel Sharon often used that phrase to defend
the Gaza withdrawal, which occurred under his premiership.
It is one of
the most terrible sentences ever uttered in Israel’s history, Edelstein said.“It
is one of the most un-democratic sentences I have heard in my
life.”
Applause greeted his words.
As it died down, English
teacher Aliza Kravat, one of the few women in the room, yelled out, “Bibi says
it all the time.”
“This is the reason we left the Likud,” she
said.
Kravat later told The Jerusalem Post that she had been an active
party member, but left because she felt betrayed by Sharon.
When
Edelstein spoke, she said, it struck a nerve and reminded her of her anger
against the Likud, even though she likes Edelstein.
Peron reminded the
audience that social justice issues were important, particularly in Judaism.
Adherence to social justice, should be treated as seriously as one honors other
laws such as the Sabbath, Peron said.
Struck noted that the elections had
been advanced because of the budget, and that the next government would be asked
to make cuts.
“We won’t allow the disabled and the weak [members of
society] to be harmed,” she said.