Head of the Gush Etzion Council's reaction to the Blue and White Party's platform including "control of the major settlement blocs": We will not provide cover for someone who wants to divide the Land and uproot Jews.
The platform of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid's Blue and White Party, stating that the blocs of settlement will remain in place in a future political settlement, is unsatisfactory to Gush Etzion Council Head Shlomo Ne'eman, who rejects the attempt to divide and differentiate communities within the settlement enterprise.
According to Ne'eman, "Gush Etzion will not serve as a fig leaf for anyone who wishes to divide the Land and uproot thousands of Jews from their homes in exchange for delusive dreams and photo-ops on the White House lawn".
Ne'eman adds that "the concept of two states is totally irrelevant – not from a policy point of view and of course, not from an ideological point of view. There must be one system of law for the entire settlement enterprise regarding building, development and in the application of Israeli sovereignty".
It should be noted that it is stated in the party's platform that there will not be a unilateral disengagement from the territories of Judea and Samaria. However, the party specifically lists the places from which it will not withdraw – the blocs of settlement, the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. In his response to this platform, the head of Gush Etzion Council, reading between the lines, sees the possible expulsions that the party plans to carry out in the rest of Judea and Samaria in order to establish a Palestinian state there, although this is not mentioned explicitly.
The Sovereignty Movement praises Ne'eman's resolute position. "The Council Head's clear and straight words present an ideological and Zionist vision that is not fooled by the media and political spin. The idea of the "blocs of settlement" conceals within it an attempt to divide the Land as well as an attempt to divide the People within it. Ideas of this sort are doomed to fall from the political agenda since they are a recipe for disaster in the future of Israel".