Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) delivered a passionate response Monday afternoon to the UN report on Israel's conduct in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, taking leftist organizations to task in the Knesset.
"I saw the report, and I saw that it contained [the names of] several recognizable organizations: Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem -- and I ask myself: B'Tselem? Our B'Tselem? That cannot be. So I had to make sure [and read the report]."
Bennett slammed the New Israel Fund (NIF) as well.
"I went on the website of the New Israel Fund, which holds the patent for the idea of putting [Israeli] soldiers on trial for war crimes," he fired. "And among the candidates for awards under the NIF, there is a candidate from B'Tselem who was nominated for social change."
"Please note - the B'Tselem organization was nominated for the Campaign to name Children from Gaza Killed During Protective Edge," he thundered.
"Why would the world file complaints against us?" Bennett continued. "We're so good at harming ourselves - [via] organizations such as B'Tselem, the New Israel Fund, Breaking the Silence."
"After all, if the world would miss attributing a war crime to us - there are those of us who would find it all by themselves."
"Like a homecoming party, the radical leftist organizations meet after each operation of the IDF, and tell the UN that we are war criminals," he added. "And I have been asking myself for years: Where does it come from? What makes a person get up in the morning in Tel Aviv or Haifa, and work - from morning to night - on turning his neighbor or his neighbor's child into a war criminal? How can they have such self-hatred? Where does it come from? I must admit, I have no answer."
Bennett's answer to the UN report is to promote the advancement of laws which would strip funding from leftist NGOs.