Nissan Slomiansky
Nissan SlomianskyFlash 90

Chairman of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) in an interview with Arutz Sheva attacked the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, the chairman of the opposition, and the municipal heads of Judea and Samaria.

Slomiansky dismissed opposition leader Isaac Herzog as a political panderer. "When the Left isn't in power, everything is bullying, damaging to individual freedom, and anti-democratic. The same things that the Left did when it was in power, now they're anti-democratic. The clearly anti-democratic one is clearly his party."

The interview moved to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's leaked comments yesterday that there is no way he would deal with Hamas for the bodies of fallen soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin. According to Slomiansky, that doesn't mean the state is not capable of working to get the bodies back - by other means. "We have many methods to pressure Hamas to release the bodies, but we're not doing them."

Slomiansky elaborated: "We need to shut down the possibility of visiting jailed [terrorists], this will hurt them badly. Don't give them the Garden of Eden they have there; it's better for them in prison than in the 'refugee camps.'"

"We should transfer to Gaza only essential goods, and no more, close off the Strip. That is the price Hamas cannot pay, and they will release the bodies. Why talk of releasing terrorists, who are murderers, who within a short while will return to the cycle of murder?"

When asked why the government doesn't put these methods into action, Slomiansky said scathingly, "There are many questions, and I keep asking them. I have no answer for the question: Why does the Prime Minister freeze planning and construction in Judea and Samaria? I have no answer to the question: Why does he speak of two countries for two nations? Why doesn't he follow through on the Regulation Act [to legalize Amona]? Why doesn't he authorize the Edmond Levy Report, when he appointed the commission, and instead still relies on the [leftist] Sasson [Report]? I have a lot of questions, and I can't answer them."

Slomiansky leveled an accusatory finger at the leadership of Judea and Samaria for the stressful situation iin the region. "I hope that the general public, especially the heads of Judea and Samaria, and the heads of the municipalities, will quit fussing around the Prime Minister. When I ask the Prime Minister why he is freezing [construction], he answers me saying 'Whom do you represent? Look, all the municipal leaders are dancing around me, most of Judea-Samaria votes for me, even though I have been freezing them for several terms, I don't let them build, talk about a Palestinian state, stand to destroy Amona, and they vote for me. So what do you want?'"

According to the Jewish Home MK, as long as the Judea-Samaria heads continue to express support for Netanyahu, the Prime Minister's relationship with the region will not improve. "If the municipal heads of Judea and Samaria, and the people of Judea and Samaria, do not come to their senses and tell the Prime Minister 'We're not with you if it's going to be like this,' and truly, not be with him once, just to show him, then until then, there is nothing we can do."