MK David Levy (Likud): "I have been a Knesset Member for 35 years, and have participated in the most crucial sessions, but I can say that this is the first time that I have seen such a strange thing as this something that is bringing about a break and crisis in my party and in this nation. I heard the Prime Minister last night, and I hoped to hear just one element that would calm me, something that would show hope and progress, and not just mere hopes with no basis. But the speech had nothing! Not one fact! Just unilateral retreat, running away from terror, and the uprooting of communities and people. And for what?? ... To compare this in any way to what Menachem Begin did is a historic wrong, an insult to history. We well remember that Knesset session when Sadat came here, to this very building, and spoke to us and spoke to the world and to his own nation, and said, 'No more war!' This was a historic turning point, and even those [among us] who weren't sure and who were pained, saw that this was a chance for real peace. But here what are we getting? A unilateral withdrawal, and nothing else! ... In the last election, it was the right-wing that won the elections and received the mandate from the nation, as opposed to the left that received a minority. But look how ironic it is: our own Prime Minister, with his manipulations, turns against his movement, crumbles the government, turns the majority in this house into a minority! This is wrong! ... Is this democratic? To make promises to a foreign power even before discussing them in the government! There is no precedent in any democracy for such a thing!"
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: "This process of disengagement must not bring about a split in the nation, government and Likud - in this order. We see worrisome signs of a split and worse, and the only way to stop this is by a referendum. The explosive potential of this plan was clear to me from the beginning; I didn't like it, as I said then, and I told the Prime Minister as much at the time. It has a lot of problems. First of all, the people. They've lived there for decades... As one who has been Prime Minister, I know that you can start a process, but you have no idea what will happen at the end... The only reason I supported it then, with a heavy heart, was because I demanded some other things to cement our hold in Judea and Samaria, such as the anti-terror partition wall - and these were achieved, or at least there were commitments to do these things."
Netanyahu then explained why it's important to have a referendum, noting that it would lessen the dangers of a split in the nation: "The claim that it will add extra time has no basis; the Prime Minister is talking about May, and the referendum will take much less time than that. In addition, it has been said that [Sharon] is afraid he might lose: first of all, I don't think that will happen... and 2ndly, if the plan is defeated, then that's the will of the people!"
Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: "This process of disengagement must not bring about a split in the nation, government and Likud - in this order. We see worrisome signs of a split and worse, and the only way to stop this is by a referendum. The explosive potential of this plan was clear to me from the beginning; I didn't like it, as I said then, and I told the Prime Minister as much at the time. It has a lot of problems. First of all, the people. They've lived there for decades... As one who has been Prime Minister, I know that you can start a process, but you have no idea what will happen at the end... The only reason I supported it then, with a heavy heart, was because I demanded some other things to cement our hold in Judea and Samaria, such as the anti-terror partition wall - and these were achieved, or at least there were commitments to do these things."
Netanyahu then explained why it's important to have a referendum, noting that it would lessen the dangers of a split in the nation: "The claim that it will add extra time has no basis; the Prime Minister is talking about May, and the referendum will take much less time than that. In addition, it has been said that [Sharon] is afraid he might lose: first of all, I don't think that will happen... and 2ndly, if the plan is defeated, then that's the will of the people!"