Labor Party leader Amram Mitzna says that if he is chosen to form Israel's next government, he will resume the negotiations with the Palestinians from the point at which they were halted under Ehud Barak. It will be recalled that Barak offered Arafat some 98% of Judea and Samaria, as well as most of eastern Jerusalem - but Arafat turned him down and began the Oslo War instead.
Mr. Mitzna is planning a visit to the small northern Shomron towns of Ganim and Kadim in the coming days, in the framework of his party's election campaign. Yesha Council leaders sounded strong objections to his visit. Shomron Regional Council head Bentzy Lieberman told Arutz-7 that a visit at this time to these long-beleaguered and threatened communities by a man with his positions is the height of insensitivity. Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha Council), said, "One doesn't visit someone in order to tell him that you want to throw him out... Mitzna is just using the Jewish communities to generate election headlines."
While some Ganim and Kadim residents say they do not welcome Mitzna's visit, others disagree. One of the latter told Israel Radio that it has been the current Likud government that has endangered them most, by planning a fence dividing northern Shomron from the rest of Israel. Labor campaign spokesmen said that Mitzna would visit in any event, and that the party made a prior announcement only as a courtesy.
Mr. Mitzna is planning a visit to the small northern Shomron towns of Ganim and Kadim in the coming days, in the framework of his party's election campaign. Yesha Council leaders sounded strong objections to his visit. Shomron Regional Council head Bentzy Lieberman told Arutz-7 that a visit at this time to these long-beleaguered and threatened communities by a man with his positions is the height of insensitivity. Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha Council), said, "One doesn't visit someone in order to tell him that you want to throw him out... Mitzna is just using the Jewish communities to generate election headlines."
While some Ganim and Kadim residents say they do not welcome Mitzna's visit, others disagree. One of the latter told Israel Radio that it has been the current Likud government that has endangered them most, by planning a fence dividing northern Shomron from the rest of Israel. Labor campaign spokesmen said that Mitzna would visit in any event, and that the party made a prior announcement only as a courtesy.