Bennett: Restriction on ‘settlements’ is ‘missed opportunity’

After expressing original satisfaction with a recent cabinet decision to limit construction in Judea and Samaria, the education minister criticized the move. 

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the Jewish Home party,  protested the government coalition’s recent decision to place restrictions on construction in Judea and Samaria at least temporarily.

The decision was made as a gesture to the Trump administration, which is pursuing a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“This is a strategic missed opportunity,” Bennett charged. “Instead of presenting an alternative, we were passive and returned to the same old of two states that will not lead to anything except frustration.”

Bennett, however, originally expressed satisfaction with the concession and even voted for it.

“On the face of it, this looks like a suitable arrangement,” Bennett told reporters over the weekend. “We will see in the coming months the implementation by the prime minister and defense ministry, and according to that we will make our future decisions.”

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party reprimanded Bennett for contradicting himself.

“I cannot figure Naftali Bennett out,” wrote Likud MK Yehuda Glick on Twitter. “He attacks Netanyahu’s historical failure on every media channel after a cabinet decision that Mr. Bennett himself voted for!”

The Likud party ridiculed Bennett’s criticism in a statement released shortly thereafter, saying that “Bennett is the last person to preach about standing up to pressure.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News