Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett started threatened Monday to pull his party out of the government coalition if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu accepts an American “framework” that is inconsistent with the party’s principles.
He also made it clear at the annual Jerusalem Conference that he will back the Prime Minister if there is no contraction between the framework and the Jewish Home’s principles.
Bennett almost found his way out of the coalition when his comments against the idea of Jews living in a Palestinian Authority state were directed so personally at the Prime Minister that he reportedly was ready to fire Bennett as Minister of Economy.
Bennett half-apologized to resolve the crisis.
Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who sticks closer to ideological red lines without going off the board completely, told the conference, “Our Jewish Home party will not sign any document that surrenders Jewish land.”
The Jewish Home is on record as standing up for all of Judea and Samaria as being part of Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on record as saying that the area is “occupied,” and the framework is not likely to sit well with the Jewish Home party.
However, Kerry has made it clear it is not a document that must be accepted by Israel and the Palestinian Authority but is one that will serve as a guideline for both sides to continue to wriggle and wangle.
