MK Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz (National Union) responded on Wednesday to the reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to the Quartet’s proposal for renewed talks with the Palestinian Authority.
“There is actually one advantage to the fact that Prime Minister Netanyahu tends to adopt the Quartet’s position of a withdrawal to 1949 armistice lines with minor territorial modifications and the division of Jerusalem,” Katz said. “It clarifies once and for all to those Land of Israel activists in the Likud what is the latest way of the Likud headed by Netanyahu.”
Katz added that Netanyahu’s new way is “completely opposite of what he said during the last election two and a half years ago.”
“We pray that G-d will continue to harden the hearts of the Arabs and that they do not agree to these terms, that will endanger the 700,000 Jews living in the lands Israel liberated in the Six Day War,” Katz added, noting that within seven years the Jewish population of these areas is expected to grow to one million.
Netanyahu’s current move, said Katz, “will finally allow the members of the Likud who remained loyal to Eretz Yisrael the courage to join the National Union and to establish a united front of guardians of the land of Israel.”
Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that the Israeli Cabinet plans to accept the Quartet’s proposed timetable of comprehensive proposals within three months on issues of territory and security, and substantial progress within six months.
The offer does not include any preconditions for return to negotiations, and has already been rejected by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for that very reason.
PA Foreign Minister Riad Maliki rejected the idea as “incomplete” earlier this week, because it does not call on Israel to halt all development in Judea and Samaria and areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinian Authority.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)