Bennett a divider, not a uniter
Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech at the Saban Forum indicates that in the upcoming elections, a vote for the right means perpetuating the rule of an ethnocentric camp determined to enclose Israel in a mental ghetto.
On Dec. 8 Al-Monitor quoted a promise by Hillary Rodham Clinton, former US secretary of state and potential presidential candidate: “The US government will continue its support of Israel regardless of which party wins the elections.” Clinton didn’t have to wait long to get a taste of the kind of leadership Israel could get on March 17, 2015. In the audience when she made her remarks at the Saban Forum in Washington sat Israeli Minister of Economy and Trade Naftali Bennett. In a speech delivered from the same stage, Bennett didn’t try to hide the essence of the leadership he is offering Israel.
Bennett spoke against the two-state solution — the formula Clinton argued was an “important and essential concept” in all that relates to ending the occupation and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “One cannot be an occupier in a country that belongs to you,” said Bennett. He stood behind his plan to annex Area C, lands constituting 60% of the West Bank that have remained under Israeli control since the signing of the Oslo Accords.
