Netanyahu with Yesha Council leaders
Netanyahu with Yesha Council leadersPR

A number of high ranking Likud officials excoriated settlement leaders opposed to the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, calling them “crazy”, according to a report by Israel Hayom Monday.

In closed door talks, multiple senior Likud officials blasted members of the Yesha Council – the umbrella organization which represents Israelis living in Judea and Samaria – who have expressed opposition to the Trump peace plan and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

The Likud leaders quoted by the report are said to have called the right-wing opponents of the Trump plan “crazy” and “irresponsible”. The Likud officials also slammed settlement leaders for allegedly leaking false information about the sovereignty plan, including inaccurate maps.

“After 70 years of hoping, it is the settlers, of all people, who are going to ruin this historic chance to apply sovereignty,” one official was quoted as saying. “They’re going around to ministers and MKs, giving interviews to the media, sending press briefings, doing everything they can to oppose the plan – and they don’t even know the full details of the plan.”

“The map which the settlement leaders are walking around with is inaccurate. The Prime Minister has more than ten different maps, and each map has a different scenario. These different maps are intended for talks with the Americans, and it is possible that in the end what will happen is that parts of one map will be merged with parts of another map, thus creating something the Americans agree to. Until then, [settlement leaders] are going around and giving everyone false information."

The officials cited in the report claimed that as a result of the opposition to the plan by some settlement leaders, the Israeli government has been asked by the Trump administration to give clarifications regarding the future of the plan.

“The Americans are saying this to us: ‘The whole Arab world is against the Deal of the Century, the Europeans are all opposed to it, the American Left and the Israeli Left are against it. Now even the Right is against it. So why go through with this?’ What can we say in reply to that?”

Yisrael Gantz, chief of the Binyamin Regional Council and a member of the Yesha Council, responded to the comments Monday morning, saying: “My friends in the Likud, a little respect, please. Everything we've put out thus far regarding the Deal of the Century has come true. When everyone was euphoric about some groundbreaking process, we knew to be on alert.”

“We expect you to at least consult with us, to share with us, rather than hide things. And certainly we’d expect you not to turn us into a punching bag, especially when we’re pointing out facts you might be trying to conceal. Change the plan and apply sovereignty properly. You can do this.”