Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked his largest coalition partner Finance Minister Yair Lapid, describing him as an inexperienced politician with a reckless peace plan when he spoke to his Knesset faction on Monday.
At the same he touted his own skills as the most responsible veteran diplomat to successfully navigate Israel through its current impasse with the Palestinians.
“Someone who is inexperienced in diplomatic negotiations and security matters should not initiate a reckless plan whose results would be akin to those of [the 2005 Gaza] disengagement,” Netanyahu said.
He spoke one day after four party leaders, including three from his coalition, challenged his ability to properly manage the Israeli Palestinian conflict by presenting their own plans to solve the issue, while chastising Netanyahu for failing to show leadership in this critical moment.
The four politicians spoke at the 2014 Herzliya Conference sponsored by the IDC Herzliya.
But Lapid’s warning that he would topple the government if it annexed even a single settlement and his detailed three part plan drew the most media attention.
The finance minister’s plan called on Israel to unilaterally create a map of its final borders as well as to freezing and withdrawal from isolated settlements in coordination with the Palestinians but in advance of a final status arrangement with them.
In the Knesset, Netanyahu did not name Lapid as he spoke to his faction, but it was assumed that his comments targeted the Yesh Atid party head. Netanyahu held up and read from a white sheet of paper. He quoted from the pre-election speech Lapid gave at Ariel University in Samaria region of the West Bank when the finance minister launched his political career.
“At the outset I would like to quote from things that were said at Ariel University, not so far away from the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya,” Netanyahu said.
“We must not repeat the historic mistake of the Israeli left which always announces its concessions up front, which only causes the Palestinians to want more and more. This isn’t how you negotiate, certainly not in our region,” Netanyahu said as he quoted from Lapid’s old speech.
He stopped quoting from the speech and added his own comments. "I'm not busying myself with political commentary. I’m pre-occupied with protecting the security Israeli citizens. I will continue to lead the country in a careful and responsible manner,” Netanyahu said.
But in spite of his strong words, Netanyahu has yet to put forward his own plan for how Israel should proceed since the nine-month US led negotiating period ended in April with no tangible results. Israel has insisted that it won’t talk with the newly unified Fatah Hamas government and as a result it seems unlikely that negotiations would resume in the near future.
The security cabinet last week created a team to study options, including the possibility of limited unilateral territorial withdrawal or annexation. Sunday nights debate, however, revealed how deeply divided Netanyahu’s ministers are on Israel’s next step. Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who represented the Likud party, argued that the best option was to maintain the status quo, while Economic Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) argued that Israel should gradually annex all of Area C, starting with the Gush Etzion bloc. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatenua) spoke in support of the settlement blocs and against building in the isolated settlements. But she said she too opposed annexation.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday called on Netanyahu to unite his ministers around a single plan when he spoke a conference in Eilat.
He attacked as a “grotesque spectacle” the speeches which four party heads, including coalition members, delivered at the 2014 Herzliya Conference. “The Economic Affairs Minister spoke about annexing the settlement blocs and the Finance Minister threatened to topple the government if even one settlement is annexed,” Liberman said.
“They both know that they there is no chance that either of these things will happen,” the foreign minister said.
“Annexation is a good idea, but it is inapplicable,” Liberman said.
“Minister Bennett knows this but he thinks he can pick up a few more mandates by speaking about it. The Justice Minister is talking about the continuation of the Oslo Accords, 21 years after it started and then failed,” Liberman said. “This reminds me of a quote from Hegel that ‘governments never learn anything form history.’ “The Interior Minister talked about the continuation of the status quo, something that simply will not work,” he said.
The government must initiate a clear plan that has united ministerial support, Liberman said.
“The Prime Minister must do this as soon as possible because if we do not initiate [a plan] one will be forced on us that we do not want and is not in our interests,” Liberman said.
His Yisrael Beytenu party, Liberman said, was the only one that had a realistic platform for a future agreement with the Palestinians, but he did not elaborate as to what that was.
The Yisrael Beytenu party supports a peace deal as part of an overall packaged that allows Israel to have a good relationship with the Arab world and resolve the issue of Israeli Arab citizens, Liberman said.
This all issues that will be dealt with in the agreement must be worked on simultaneously, he said.
The Middle East has changed since the Arab League Initiative was first proposed in 2002, that offered Israel normalized relations in return for a two-state solution at the pre-1967 lines.
Today many nations in the Middle East face the same threats as Israel from Israel, Syria, Al-Quida and Islamic Extremists.
“They want to survive they must openly cooperate with us,” he said. Lapid, however, spoke in support of his plan on Monday when he addressed in faction in the Knesset. He said that Israel must set its final borders because it needs to secure the country and to separate from the Palestinians.
“We need to put a concrete map on the table that will define the boundaries of the settlements blocs and where should increase and where it should stop,” he said.
“To do nothing, is not an act of leadership, he said.
Bennett told his faction that Israel needs to look out first and foremost for its interests. It needs a plan that is born of strength and not fear, he said.
Critics have said that the plan is “unrealistic” or “anti-Zionist.”
“I say, that no matter how hard you attacks, we will continue to do exactly what we believe is good for the nation of Israel and what is needed to stay true to our voters,” he said.
The sovereignty plan was proposed before the last elections and his party has worked to advance it since then.
Bennett said that Israel should first extend to Gush Etzion, because even former US president Jimmy Carter believes it should be within Israel’s final borders.
“It could be a good start,” Bennett said.