Israel Resilience party leader Benny Gantz hits back at Netanyahu after the prime minister criticized the ex-IDF chief for hinting at an Israeli pullback from the West Bank, drawing praise from the PA.
“You’ve expelled Jews. You’ve paid Hamas protection [money]. Your time is over, we are carrying on,” Gantz says according a party statement.
Gantz told the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip had been “approved by the Israeli government and implemented by the army and settlers in a painful but good way.” Without explicitly mentioning the West bank, Gantz said that “[one should] learn from it and apply it to other places.”
Afterwards, Abbas’s spokesman cautiously welcomed Gantz’s remarks as “encouraging.”
In a video praising the results of the Likud primaries Netanyahu attacked Gantz saying: “The real trouble is that [Palestinian Authority President] Abbas is also pleased, because today Gantz said he would carry out a second disengagement from the West Bank, and Abbas just wished him luck in the elections.”
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From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
