Attila Somfalvi
Photo: Gabi Menashe
Settlers in a bind
Settlers unpleased with construction freeze but have no alternative to Bibi
A short while after Avi Naim, the head of the Beit Aryeh local council, was detained last week during clashes with Civil Administration inspectors and police officers who arrived to enforce the settlement freeze, settler leader Shaul Goldstein sent a text message to several ministers he maintains regular personal contacts with. Look at what they’re doing, he wrote. They beat up Avi Naim. This has gone too far.
The unexpected direction where support came from could attest to the deep political distress faced by the settler camp. “The first two to get back to me,” Goldstein told Naim later that day,” were two Labor party ministers, Isaac Herzog and Shalom Simhon.”
The settlers are indeed facing a serious political problem. While a poll undertaken by Mina Tzemach for the Knesset Channel showed that most of the public objects to the freeze, when it comes to action, most of the public shows apathy. Moreover, none of the truly influential politicians around here, with the exception of a few rightist Knesset members and ministers, really spoke up this past week.
Even Likud members who think the freeze is an ideological mistake are backing Netanyahu for the time being. Likud and other rightist ministers, who were exposed to the most sensitive information in respect to the freeze, realize that the PM was pushed into a corner by the international community, headed by the United States.
The truth is that Yesha Council leaders also understand it well, yet the pressure exerted on them by residents nonetheless prompted them to embark on a public high-profile struggle that is partly violent.
Politically, the settlers are in a catch 22 situation, and they admit it. Netanyahu is their envoy, the Right’s representative, the man who promised before the elections to build, build, and build more.
‘No other choice’
At this time there is no alternative for a rightist leader, and Tzipi Livni is not really an option. On the other hand, settler leaders cannot remain indifferent in the face of the people they represent, who were stuck with building permits they cannot utilize.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is following the various polls, but he knows that every passing day is working in his favor, especially when it comes to centrist voters.
“He is doing exactly what a leader needs to do,” one of his associates says, using the same rhetoric used by Ariel Sharon’s people during the disengagement. “We did not act in line with the polls, yet the people expect Netanyahu to be a leader, even if the decisions he makes are unpopular. After all, he isn’t doing what he’s doing because he’s facing probes. One cannot suspect that he is acting based on corrupt considerations.”
Senior officials at the PM’s Office promise that Netanyahu does not intend to break. “This is his word to Obama,” one official says. “You can’t make mistakes here and you can’t play games. Even those who work at the office and are pained by the move know there is no other choice.”
