Chairman Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party preached unity Tuesday evening, at the opening of his speech at the party's ideological conference, telling opposition parties they were wrong to say they would not attend Wednesday evening's state ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of a Jewish presence beyond the 1949 Armistice Line.
He said the boycott gives residents of those areas the message that they're "second class" and noted that Israel's enemies don't discriminate when it comes to taking lives. Calling debate the lifeblood of democracy, Bennett said, "The reason they gave was that they did not allow the opposition to speak, so I'm willing to give up the four minutes of my speech just let's be together because we have no other country."