Jewish Home party Naftali Bennett personally apologized to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday night, dousing the flames of the political fire that threatened to spread out of control.
The differences between the two over a future Palestinian Authority state were headlined on Tuesday when Bennett, referring to the Prime Minister‘s earlier statement that Jews could live in a future PA state, “Do you know why… Jews cannot live under Palestinian rule? Do you know why? Why Palestinians can’t rule over Jews? “Because they will kill them. And do you know how I know this? Because it has already happened.”
That was too much for Netanyahu, who was furious at Bennett for scoring political points while he was setting up Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to look foolish for his previous statements that no Jews would be allowed under PA rule.
Netanyahu told Bennett to get back on course with him or pay a heavy political price.
Several hours later, Bennett told a press conference, “If the prime minister was hurt, I absolutely sorry about it.”
He tried to play down the episode. ”There are those who are trying to turn a substantive conversation about the future of our land and our security into a personal attack that never was. I respect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his leadership under difficult circumstances, support him when necessary and criticize him as necessary, and that’s my obligation,” Bennett added.