Former Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Monday evening addressed the planned demolition of 15 homes in the Gush Etzion neighborhood of Netiv Ha’avot, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event held by the Im Tirtzu and Israel Victory Project organizations at the Bar-Ilan University, Sa'ar said the demolition was "pointless destruction."
"We need to change the paradigm and start a process of applying Israeli law to the Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. If we go for such a move, what is about to occur in Netiv Ha’avot will not happen in the future, because it will be possible to provide a solution that exists in Israeli law for such cases, in the form of expropriation and compensation," he said.
Sa'ar also addressed the international opposition that the implementation of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria would have.
"I do not expect the American administration to publicly support such a move, but we should not expect it, just as we did not expect it when we applied Israeli law on the Golan Heights in 1981 or on united Jerusalem in 1967,” he said. “What is necessary is to reach a certain level of coordination and understanding. We have to accept the American political umbrella in the Security Council and in other international forums. But ultimately, this is the move we have to make,” he declared.
"The legal regime that was appropriate and possible to deal with was applicable when Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria numbered several thousand people. But this is impossible today. There are problems we encounter on many issues and of which the public is not even aware,” continued Sa’ar.
In his remarks, the former minister also discussed the political strategy the State of Israel must take vis-à-vis the Palestinian Arabs.
"We must move to a paradigm of victory. We must abandon the paradigm of two states between the sea and the Jordan River. In a very puzzling way, Israel historically chose to promote this paradigm for the first time in the 1990s, after the PLO leadership was expelled to Tunisia during the First Lebanon War and after the PLO was completely isolated after it supported Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. In other words, Israel chose to do the stupidest thing at the best period in time,” said Sa’ar.
Sa'ar unexpectedly stepped down from politics before the last election, citing personal reasons, but announced in early 2017 he was returning to political life and would run with the Likud.