BREAKING NEWS

Right-wing lawmakers criticize settlement-freeze plan

Right-wing lawmakers cri

As expected, right-wing lawmakers criticized the security cabinet's approval of a 10-month settlement moratorium on Wednesday. "A right-wing government must encourage settlements, not strangle them," said Science Minister Daniel Herschkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi). "Any gesture to the US and to Abbas won't work." National Union leader Ya'acov Katz called upon right-wing ministers to quit. He said he would organize an emergency meeting of right-wing MKs at the Knesset against the move. Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who is not a member of the security cabinet, also issued fierce criticism of the decision. "Freezing the building means freezing having children, and later concessions and transferring Jews who want to settle the land of Israel. I will not lend my hand to a move that will endanger Israel's security without bringing us any closer to peace," he said. Minister-without-Portfolio Bennie Begin, who voted for the deal, told Channel 1 that his vote did not go toward freezing construction, but for building a smaller number of dwellings plus some key public buildings. "Ten months eventually pass," Begin said.