Itzik Shadmi, Chairman of the Binyamin Residents’ Council, rejected on Wednesday accusations by Danny Dayan, the outgoing head of the Yesha Council, that “the nationalist camp could lead to a second Oslo.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Dayan, who announced his resignation so he could publicly support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, claimed in an interview with Arutz Sheva that the nationalist camp’s harsh criticism of Netanyahu could lead to a second Oslo.
“The residents’ committees have been publishing movies that compare Netanyahu to Arik Sharon…. I’m afraid of where this will lead us,” Dayan said. “Yes, three houses were destroyed in Migron, I was there and I cried together with the families, but when they say that because of what happened in Migron Tzipi Livni is preferable [to Netanyahu] – that will bring the Left to power.”
Shadmi, however, denied Dayan’s allegations, telling Arutz Sheva on Wednesday evening, “I congratulate Danny Dayan on his new path, but he is making a serious mistake. We never compared between Netanyahu and Sharon, we just said that it might happen in the future, that Netanyahu may act like Sharon.”
“Netanyahu is winking towards the left instead of the right, and he may go the way of Sharon,” said Shadmi.
He added that Netanyahu’s mistakes when it came to Judea and Samaria over the course of his last term were anything but minor, as Dayan seemed to be suggesting.
“It was not three houses destroyed in Migron, the demolished the entire community, fifty homes were destroyed,” said Shadmi. “Same goes for the Bar-Ilan speech. Netanyahu prepared the speech without consulting anybody. He surprised even his closest associates. It was a serious act from a strategic point of view. It’s true that a Palestinian state is farther today than ever before, but that’s not because of Netanyahu but because of the Palestinians.”
He added, “It’s true that in recent months things have improved in terms of construction in Judea and Samaria, but where was Netanyahu over the last four years? There was a building freeze. To a certain extent the Netanyahu government was no better than the Olmert government.”
Shadmi rejected Dayan’s claims that the right is repeating the same mistakes it made in 1992 which ended up bringing down the government of Yitzchak Shamir to be replaced by Yitzchak Rabin.
“If there was a risk that we would bring the left to power, we would not be attacking Netanyahu,” he said. “We favor Netanyahu as prime minister, because he is better than others. We just think that now, before the elections, is the time to make our demands.”