Representatives of the “Headquarters for the Struggle for Amona” reacted officially this morning to reports on Channel 2 that PM Netanyahu told Amona residents in closed meetings that the community was in danger as long as US President Barack Obama was in office.
According to the report, Netanyahu said that there is great concern that the US President will take a one-sided approach against Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria during his remaining short period in office.
The representatives said in response: “We are not negating the difficulty inherent in approving the Regulation Law, but we also know that the Prime Minister and government represent Israeli interests, and the world understands and accepts this - even if it does not agree.”
The representatives added that warnings from the American President are not related to the responsibility of the prime minister for Amona residents, saying:
“Israel’s interest is to save Amona, to regulate settlement, and to prevent damage and injustice to thousands of families who built their homes with the support of previous Israeli governments. The responsibility for what will happen in Amona lies neither with Obama and the Americans, nor with the Supreme Court, but only with the Prime Minister, [Defense Minister Avigdor] Liberman, and [Jewish Home representatives Naftali] Bennett and [Ayelet] Shaked. It’s in their hands.”
“If Netanyahu caves in on Amona, he will also do so on Ofra and [on many other similar cases], because Obama will apparently be followed by Clinton - and the Supreme Court is not going anywhere, either. Amona is the test,” they asserted.
It will be remembered that the Prime Minister’s office denied the reports of what he had said to Amona residents: “PM Netanyahu did not say the things attributed to him, but only noted that, in the past, US presidents at the end of their terms had advanced policies that were not in line with Israel’s interests.”
“The PM added that he hopes this will not be repeated again, and that he expects the US not to change its traditional stance of decades of prevention of anti-Israel resolutions at the UN Security Council,” the Prime Minister’s office said.
This morning, a solidarity march for Amona, ending in the community itself, is to take place in the presence of Ministers, MKs and Regional Authority heads.