The head of YESHA Council rejects the criticism of his response to the Trump plan: It is a plan whose purpose is to establish a Palestinian state. I am proud of stopping it. Netanyahu no longer holds Likud values.
Head of YESHA Council and head of Jordan Valley Council David Elhayani calls for replacing the Prime Minister with a different leader whose ideological world view is compatible with the Likud, someone who would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In an interview with Arutz 7, Elhayani related to the criticism directed toward him from the Right that his blatant opposition to the Trump plan is what caused us to miss the historic opportunity to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. “I am proud and we are proud that we prevented this bad plan from being implemented”, he says, noting that the American plan was designed only to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state and later, the evacuation of tens of thousands of settlers.
According to him, it was not in vain that the plan mentions the term “Palestinian state” dozens of times and it is not in vain that it protects Palestinian territorial contiguity. All of this was intended ultimately to bring about the establishment of a Palestinian state on seventy percent of Judea and Samaria and for this reason it was good and correct to shelve it.
However, he states that the person who really took the matter of sovereignty off the agenda is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone, who feels committed to American interests and the interests of the American president, especially because of the approaching elections, and he acts according to these interests. Elhayani says that Netanyahu must promote Israeli interests, including the application of Israeli sovereignty over Area C, independent of any connection to the American plan.
Elhayani believes that the Deal of the Century was promoted by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, from the desire to prove to the American people that Trump has the power to do what presidents before him could not, meaning to bring about an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
In light of all this, Elhayani calls for replacing Netanyahu with a different leader who speaks and acts according to the Likud ideology and not foreign interests. In his opinion, there are enough leaders in the Likud who can sit at the head of the party and take Netanyahu’s place. “We must thank Netanyahu for the years that he gave to the People of Israel, for his achievements in the fields of the economy and security, but now, the time has come for different leadership”.
When we ask whether Netanyahu’s replacement would not give members of Knesset Lieberman and Yair Lapid a feeling of having achieved a victory, Elhayani responds by stating that the changing of the guard in the leadership of the party is a good and healthy process that strengthens a party and does not weaken it.
Elhayani has criticism for the Prime Minister for the ongoing de facto freeze in Judea and Samaria. According to him, Netanyahu allows the Americans to interfere in considerations of planning and building, as he openly admitted, and as the Americans themselves have acknowledged. This interference, he says, is what prevents the necessary permits for building to continue being issued. Elhayani mentions that ultimately, the final signatures that allow building to progress are subject to the exclusive discretion of Netanyahu himself.