Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettIsrael news photo: TNL

Naftali Bennett, Director-General of the Yesha Council, presented last week his solution for the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Bennett, who recently announced he would step down from his position, called his solution “the imperfect, practical solution”.

Bennett said that Judea and Samaria belongs to the Jews and said he is very proud of the towns in Judea and Samaria.

“Ten years from now, there will be a million Jews in Judea and Samaria,” he said, adding, however, that “we’re not on an island” and that as such, some solution must be found that will allow for Jews and Arabs to live on the same land.

“Anyone talking about annexing the two million Arabs in Judea and Samaria is nuts,” Bennett said. “Anyone talking about founding a state [in Judea and Samaria] that will become a Hamas state, and it will, is nuts.”

Bennett then presented a third way to end the conflict: Israel will annex the parts of Judea and Samaria it currently controls and will give the Arabs living there with Israeli citizenship.

As for security concerns, he said, Israel would retain full security control of the area. As well, he added, “The Arabs won’t have the right of having millions of Palestinian refugees enter the land of Israel.”

“I think in the long term that would probably be the solution,” Bennett said. “Palestine would be east of the Jordan River. The two million Arabs living in Judea and Samaria stay put and they’ll exercise their political rights either in the Palestinian autonomy or in Jordan – it’s up to them.”