Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) expressed his hope on Wednesday that a series of coalition crises threatening the government can be resolved, but noted that recent statements by both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman were disappointing and raised serious questions about the direction of the coalition.
“We worked hard to expand the government by adding a right-wing party rather than the Zionist Union,” Slomiansky said during an interview with Arutz Sheva.
“We thought that Liberman was truly right-wing, and we were happy [that he was included in the government. But then within no time at all we were shocked [by what he said]. The Prime Minister speaks about two states for two peoples, as does the Defense Minister. You’re just shocked by it.”
Slomiansky said the Defense Minister’s statements were a sobering reminder of the failure of most ostensibly nationalist parties to adhere to their own principles.
“In every right-wing coalition there is really only one right-wing party – the Jewish Home. Bear in mind that the idea of two states for two peoples has never been approved by any governing body. Policy has to be approved by the cabinet or the Knesset, but in this case the statements by the Prime Minister have never been approved.”
“There was even someone from the opposition who thought he would be clever and raise the issue for a vote in the Knesset – and the Israeli Knesset voted it down. So it’s really no wonder that the Jewish Home opposes two states for two peoples and says this in a very clear way.”
While Slomiansky acknowledged that international pressure on Netanyahu to make such statements in support of Palestinian statehood was intense, he expressed bewilderment at the repetition of such declarations.
“I understand that there was a lot of pressure, so he said what he said, but these things get forgotten. Why bring them up again? When you repeat them over and over again, it becomes a cause for concern.”
Despite this, however, Slomiansky said he was hopeful the current coalition stabilizes.
“The current make-up of the [coalition] must remain, in spite of it all this is still the best right-wing government we can get. There have been some great achievements in the educational system, in the appointment of judges, in the appointment of the Attorney General, and other areas. There’s a tremendous revolution in laws [relating to] terrorism, the NGO law, and the expulsion law, and all of this we cannot jeopardize [by losing the government]. We cannot go to new elections.”