Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz met Tuesday afternoon with the leaders of the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria.
During the meeting, Gantz told the leaders: "I learned from the Mapai party: take what you can get. The rest will be taken care of later."
The remarks were made against the backdrop of the confrontation between the leaders of the Yesha Council and Prime Minister Netanyahu over the details of the plan to declare Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
"The prime minister and I sit together to discuss the political aspects of the potential decisions, and I hope that we can reach an agreement," he added.
Gantz strongly criticized Yesha Council chairman David Elhayani for his remarks against US President Donald Trump. "I wish to emphasize here, the United States is our best friend in the world and it backs us up on strategic matters, and we will maintain this partnership. When we make political moves we must listen well to what is happening internally and around us, and we must maintain our peace agreements with Jordan for example. These agreements greatly contribute to regional stability and all of our security."
"Our responsibility - before making decisions about sovereignty - is to help cultivate and to help the places where people live legally, both with security and in helping them to lead a normal life," he added.
"We will have arguments, but I insist that we maintain unity in Israeli society. I entered politics because I saw the social dangers facing the State of Israel, and we can't afford to maintain the intensity we've experienced in recent years," Gantz concluded.