The head of the unofficial Samaria Residents' Council, veteran settlement activist Benny Katzover, said that while it would be “ideal” to create a body to replace the Yesha Council, such a move is not practical. He said that the Yesha Council had become too political and was not suited for carrying out grassroots struggles – but also said that there was no alternative to it, and that he has hopes that it would change over time.
The Yesha Council of local government heads in Judea and Samaria came under severe attack after the expulsion from Gush Katif and has been accused of betraying the settlers and collaborating with the government.
Katzover did not sound particularly upset over the announcement by Pinchas Wallerstein, another veteran activist, that he was retiring from the position of Yesha Council Director. “On the one hand I feel sorrow,” he told Arutz Sheva. “Pinchas is a good man, very talented at getting things done..., a man with talent and devotion and energy, but at this time, when they are preparing another sellout of property in the Land of Israel, we need new forces.”
The Yesha Council is being run in a better way now that it is under Dayan, Katzover said. “The ideological line in the Yesha Council in recent years was not right for the Gush Katif struggle, and it certainly is not right for today's struggle. We need people who will not try to be popular with the Left, but instead we need people who will know how to take action deep inside the territory and will lead the public in the struggles. Danny Dayan is going in that direction.”
Times have changed, said Katzover, who was a leader of the Gush Emunim movement since the 1970s. “Today we must not stutter; we need a much clearer and well defined line,” he explained. “We cannot hear denouncements of soldiers who protest and denouncements of rabbis who speak their minds. Now that Netanyahu is cooking up negotiations for the 1967 borders, we need a personality that will know how to carry out the struggle.”
Ha'ivri: bring back Katzover
David Ha'ivri, director of the Shomron Liaison Office, said: "The Yesha council has become an over-politicized lobby and a burden to the settlement movement. The organization is set in it ways with prehistoric protests and gimmicks. Presenting a timid representation of the rights of Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron. This group needs to ether be shut down or revolutionized from the top down. Wallerstein's departure is five years too late for Gush Katif, but not too late for the rest of Yehuda and Shomron if the correct changes are made."
"Benny Katzover could be a fine candidate to bring in the old time winds of Gush Emunim together with the strength of the Hilltop youth and people of Homesh. If we are to save Yehuda and Shomron we will need to put all politeness aside, roll up our sleves and start fighting."