Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett had a few choice words to say to President Donald Trump Tuesday, following a Monday night Channel 10 News report that Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN General Assembly, “I can be as tough with Bibi as I have been with the Palestinians.”
Trump assured Macron that he would able to pressure Netanyahu, if need be, to accept the American peace plan that would be presented in the coming months – presumably including Israeli recognition of a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria with its capital in eastern Jerusalem.
“There will not be a joint capital in Jerusalem for another thousand years,” Bennett told Army Radio, stressing, “As long as we are part of the Israeli government, we will never agree to the division of Jerusalem, to a joint capital. You don’t play games with this, and then create a terrible precedent. It took us years to extricate ourselves from the pit [dug by prime ministers Ehud] Barak and [Ehud] Olmert, who offered delusional proposals, and agreed, for example, to give the Palestinians the Temple Mount. As long as we are in Jerusalem, we will not allow concessions regarding Israeli sovereignty.”
“I don’t have a problem with conducting political negotiations, I am not against it,” Bennett said. “I sat in the government when [Tzipi] Livni ran one such thing, but there is one sacred subject – Jerusalem. There are some things you don’t do, under no circumstance, not even as a political maneuver, we will not say yes to the division of Jerusalem.”
“We will also not agree to a territorial compromise, unless the Arabs want to transfer territory to us,” Bennett said. “We’re ready to accept territory. We are the smallest state in the region, we will not transfer one more inch [of land] to the Arabs, that saga is over.”
“Where is it written that we have to hand over territories all the time?” Bennett asked. “We did it in Gaza and inherited hell. My position is – we do not give away one inch of soil.”