No evacuation: Bibi plays to the right with settlement pledge
Israel will never again evacuate settlements, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, in one of the most impassioned declarations of right-wing beliefs he has made as Prime Minister.
ISRAEL will never again evacuate settlements, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, in one of the most impassioned declarations of right-wing beliefs he has made as Prime Minister.
Netanyahu left his audience thrilled, at a settler celebration to mark 50 years since Israel captured the West Bank, after a speech of almost 10 minutes which it deemed pitch perfect.
Netanyahu said everything that the crowd wanted to hear.
“We have returned here to stay forever, there will be no more uprooting of settlements in the Land of Israel,” he promised. “No settlements will be uprooted.”
It’s not known how Netanyahu’s promise will be squared with his assurances that he backs a two-state solution to make peace with the Palestinians, as virtually the whole international community expects evacuations as part of a peace deal.
But Monday’s event wasn’t about details – it was about courtship.
This was Israel’s embattled Prime Minister – a man facing corruption allegations and intense police investigations – turning on his charm big-time with the group of Israelis most likely to stand by him through troubled times, most likely to say that whatever he’s done, the nation needs him.
Netanyahu’s message was clear: Whatever he has needed to say for the sake of diplomacy, his heart has always been with the settlers and settlements, and always will be.
Inferred during all the excitement was a proposal – he needs the love and the loyalty of settlers to continue.
Netanyahu got the embrace he wanted, not only through the rapturous applause, but when the mayor of the West Bank’s Samaria region, Yossi Dagan, made him an honorary citizen of Samaria.
It was the signal of political endorsement that Netanyahu was hoping for. He wants to know that the settler- right is the safety net that can stop him falling from power.
It is the safety net that saved him in the 2015 general election, when he looked set to suffer defeat at the hands of the centre-left and he avoided this fate after backing off from the two-state solution and controversially warning on polling day that Arabs were heading to polling stations “in droves”.
And as scandal seems to be brewing, he seems to be softening it up again.
It was a speech that had it all. It was personal, with him recalling his first time in Samaria shortly after its capture, and how “my excitement knew no bounds”.
He made the audience almost feel they were with him on this day – he was in the army, it was early morning, the views were impressive.
Looking like every word was moving him, and with his hand by his chest, close to his heart, he emphasised the biblical importance of the places he visited – a winning formula for his audience – and at another point in the speech lauded the “faith” of settlers.
Their “pioneering” spirit was also praised.
Netanyahu said that back when he first visited Samaria the place was “desolate” and he hoped there will be large settlements and a museum, and said that he has done much to develop settlements and is making this museum a reality.
And he said, citing favourite arguments of settlers, that territorial withdrawal has not brought peace but rather created launch pads for terrorist rockets, and that Israeli presence in the West Bank is important strategically.
The Prime Minister wowed settlers. “We’re back here forever and ever,” enthused Dagan.
The speech is irking the left, for undermining the prospect of territorial compromise and for its strong embrace of settler power.
But this will only help Bibi to ingratiate himself to the audience that he hopes can save him whatever unfolds over the coming weeks.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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