Chairman of the Jewish Home party Minister Naftali Bennett sent a message to Knesset members of his party referring to the Likud's attack on him after he called on the Prime Minister on Saturday night to renounce the so-called two-state solution.
"Dear Members of Knesset, following the discussion in the faction: In the coming days, we will have to stand strong against the expected international pressure. That we shall do. In the meantime, the Prime Minister will try to paint the debate as personal, and it is not personal ... If we do not stand strong, we know that no one else will," Bennett wrote.
Bennett responded in today's communique to statements made against him by the Likud on Saturday night.
The communique first addressed the claim that "Bennett sends children to pray in mosques." The Jewish Home chairman said, "It was an isolated, one-time incident by a teacher from Caesarea who visited the mosque and joined the prayer. Really wrong. She was reprimanded and apologized. That's it. There are 2.2 million students. Things could always happen and they do happen."
On the Likud's argument against Bennett according to which he hired an extreme leftist to be responsible for civics studies, he said: "She [the alleged leftist] was the one who approved the 'fascist' citizenship book and the 'far-right' indicator. As a result of these permits, four members of the committee who are considered 'leftists' resigned ... The truth is that Bennett does not promote a right-wing or left-wing conception, but rather a Zionist-democratic conception. This entire approach is repulsive and despicable.
"It is as if we were attacking Foreign Minister Netanyahu for his appointment yesterday of the father of Breaking the Silence's spokesman Israeli ambassador to Germany as unworthy, certainly not for the Israeli prime minister."
Finally, Bennett answered the claim of neglecting incitement in East Jerusalem: "In the last two years, we have done more than was done in 40 years of the Likud. Two inciting school principals have been fired, a school was closed. Inciting teachers were fired. More importantly, Bennett is working hard to strengthen Israeli studies in East Jerusalem in a way that never existed."