Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi is strongly against the leftward trend among some Likud leaders. Referring to Trade Minister Ehud Olmert's recent "out of the closet" statements in favor of a unilateral withdrawal from most of Yesha (Judea and Samaria), HaNegbi said,
"What Olmert is saying, essentially, is, 'Enough, I have no strength left.' He hides behind electronic fences and concrete walls and hopes for the best."
HaNegbi, speaking with Arutz-7's Haggai Segal yesterday, expressed the hope that more Likud leaders would stand by him: "What we have to do is not to be middle-of-the-roaders, but to be leaders - not just to guess when an evacuation will occur, but to make sure that it does not occur - and that's what I intend to do."
HaNegbi's view of Prime Minister Sharon's recent position is less cutting:
"I don't think that he has in mind a panicky withdrawal like Olmert's. He has ideas about certain unilateral moves that he feels are good for Israel and its security, but we don't know what they are yet... He has spoken many times of the importance of Netzarim. Uprooting Jewish communities in Yesha has come up perhaps hundreds of times in the history of the Likud, but in the meantime we see that in the years since the Likud came to power in 1977 [during which Israel had a Labor party Prime Minister for less than eight years - ed. note], the number of communities and residents in Yesha has grown. There are now a quarter of a million Jews living on the other side of what was the Green Line. We must therefore be optimistic, and retain hope, and primarily struggle for what we believe in."
"What Olmert is saying, essentially, is, 'Enough, I have no strength left.' He hides behind electronic fences and concrete walls and hopes for the best."
HaNegbi, speaking with Arutz-7's Haggai Segal yesterday, expressed the hope that more Likud leaders would stand by him: "What we have to do is not to be middle-of-the-roaders, but to be leaders - not just to guess when an evacuation will occur, but to make sure that it does not occur - and that's what I intend to do."
HaNegbi's view of Prime Minister Sharon's recent position is less cutting:
"I don't think that he has in mind a panicky withdrawal like Olmert's. He has ideas about certain unilateral moves that he feels are good for Israel and its security, but we don't know what they are yet... He has spoken many times of the importance of Netzarim. Uprooting Jewish communities in Yesha has come up perhaps hundreds of times in the history of the Likud, but in the meantime we see that in the years since the Likud came to power in 1977 [during which Israel had a Labor party Prime Minister for less than eight years - ed. note], the number of communities and residents in Yesha has grown. There are now a quarter of a million Jews living on the other side of what was the Green Line. We must therefore be optimistic, and retain hope, and primarily struggle for what we believe in."