Shalom, shalom.
So let's ask the question on everyone's mind: How is it that a staunch right wing government in particular evacuates a settlement?
It doesn't surprise me. Let's not forget that it was a staunch right wing government that gave away the Sinai, that destroyed Gush Katif. The staunch right wing governments have a track record of destruction greater than all the governments of the Left combined.
How do you address the promises of some of the ministers in the government that Amona wouldn't be evacuated? We even heard a number of times Naftali Bennett, Minister of Education, and others, express that they lulled the residents into complacency. How do you see it? Wouldn't it have been preferable maybe to come and say in a clear manner, like the Defense Minister Lieberman, that Amona was going to be evacuated?
What is really needed is to find an alternative to all this purposeless right wing. If you're not able when you're the most right wing there is, to prevent an awful destruction like this, maybe it's really preferable that you should be in the opposition. If all you can do is to blame the High Court, to blame the media, to blame the Left, pretty soon they'll blame Trump, then what did we elect you for? It would have been better for the left to have been in power. In other words, I'm not offering advice to the Right what's the right thing to have said. If you can't do the job, go home.
If you were a minister in the government today, how would you have behaved? I mean, an absolute legal ruling from the High Court was given that doesn't leave too many question marks. So how would you have acted in this situation?
There are hundreds of absolute legal rulings regarding the Bedouin in the Negev, regarding the Arabs in the Galilee and the Triangle, and I'd say okay, I'm starting to carry out all of these legal rulings, and believe me, that with the first destruction, or the second of some or other Bedouin village, they'd find a solution even for Amona. Let's not be disingenuous. Since the right doesn't have some sort of roadmap, some path, some objective, a message, a clear vision, internal conscience of its own, an alternative to the vision of two states, it isn't able, really, to stand against the very, very clear path that the most extreme left is laying out. When I entered the Knesset, one of the first challenges that stood before me was that Netanyahu had decided to free 2000 terrorists in 4 batches, for those who remember. And I announced then that if this decision were to pass, that I, despite being a member of the Likud then, would vote against the budget. I tried to recruit all the Knesset members from Jewish Home, and the most right wing of the Likud. No one agreed to back me, and in the end, I found myself voting alone against the budget of my own party because of the freeing of terrorists. Some time later, one of the Likud ministers told me that if even two others had joined me, no terrorist would have been freed. So don't tell me stories. The moment there isn't that readiness to draw red lines for yourself, Amona is just a precedent, unfortunately, for what's to come. In summary, I would say to you that this right wing is irrelevant. It's irrelevant when it comes to the Regulations Law that of course will never happen, it's irrelevant when it came to Amona, it's irrelevant in Ofra, it's irrelevant when it comes to the Bedouin in the Negev, and it's irrelevant when it comes to the Sudanese immigrants... it's simply irrelevant. Go home. Go to the opposition.
You're saying that the blame is on the Likud and the Jewish Home, among others, but the government, for its part, claims that in the wake of the evacuation of Amona, massive building will be approved in Judea and Samaria. So maybe it's right that it's a loss in a battle, but a victory in the campaign?
Are you familiar with the deep concept of blah-blah? That's what that is. We heard that in the past countless times... I think that whoever was taken for a ride in the closed gates of Kfar Maimon needs to understand that his political leaders are leading him to another round in Amona, and in short: blah-blah.
Recently, you published a post on Facebook in which you identify with the assertive acts of the American President Donald Trump. Do you think that acts in this spirit would be accepted in Israel? Would you even act this assertively towards the justice system, including calling for the firing of anyone who doesn't get in line with your position?
I don't identify with everything that Trump does. Also, his style isn't exactly my style. What I published was that the things he is doing are things that I've been recommending for years here in Israel. If the Attorney General isn't willing to represent the government, he needs to be fired immediately. It's a fact that Netanyahu isn't firing the Attorney General, and he has all the tools to do so. The Attorney General does not act based on any clear law. If he isn't firing him, then the Prime Minister is responsible for there not being any representation for the government. By the way, the whole situation of Amona, and because the same right wing government, the same Netanyahu, the same Bennett, allowed the former Attorney General, Weinstein, to come to the High Court and say that yes, Amona sits on private plots, lies and bluff. The result was that all the discussion about who the land really belongs to was redundant. The High Court accepted the position of the state. And again, not a word. No firing, no holding accountable the state representative who is essentially an emissary of the most extreme left within the government. The Attorney General isn't elected unless the High Court agrees to his appointment, so he becomes the long arm of the High Court within the government. You facilitated this whole game, and now you're washing your hands and saying "they're guilty and I'm not." The responsibility, in the end, is on the government and on he who stands at its head, and of course also on Bennett. It's on the right wing that is governing today, in what's called the strongest right wing government, which has been in power already more than 40 years. You haven't changed a thing, you haven't moved a thing. I'm saying again, all of you, take your blah-blah and go home, and excuse the harsh language, but that's the truth. You aren't capable of anything, you aren't able to realize the values and the vision of the national camp, so go to the opposition.
So as we wind this up, can you tell us for the benefit of our listeners, in a sentence, what is the message that the Zehut Party under your leadership wishes to bring?
The message of Zehut is that the People of Israel have a comprehensive alternative. Not just for Amona. For all of the problems that we're dealing with here in the Land of Israel. For housing, transportation, the economy, and yes, also for the problems of policies and our relationship with our neighbors. We have an alternative to the vision of two states. There is a Jewish State in place of a state of all of its citizens, towards which the Left is trying to pull us.
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