A plan to hold a largely declaratory vote in Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) against international unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state was canceled on Monday after the opposition party Yisrael Beytenu proposed a more hawkish declaration to oppose Palestinian statehood under any condition.
The cancellation was an indication of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s sensitivity to attacks from the Right, as the decision was an attempt to avoid having to vote against a more hawkish proposal.
The government chose instead to suffice with an announcement in the Knesset that echoed a decision made earlier on Sunday, which said that “Israel utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”
Ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, as well as from the Religious Zionist Party (RZP) and Otzma Yehudit, criticized the language, as it did not rule out a Palestinian state in general. However, it was an opposition party – Yisrael Beytenu – that created a problem by demanding that the statement oppose any Palestinian state whatsoever.
Finance Minister and RZP chairman Bezalel Smotrich addressed the issue in a press conference ahead of his party’s weekly meeting on Monday and said that while his party opposed Palestinian statehood no matter the circumstances – the threat of the US unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state was a “real diplomatic threat,” and therefore the government needed to use language that would garner broad consensus in the Knesset. Smotrich said that 100 out of 120 MKs supporting the declaration would be “significant” and added that there would always be “opposition from the left and from the right.”
Liberman’s, Lapid’s comments
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman charged in a post on X on Monday that the vote over Palestinian statehood was a “spin” since Netanyahu “opposed a unilateral decision, but in parallel, promised and pledged to the Saudis that within the framework of a deal, he would agree to the formation of a Palestinian state in one formulation or another.”
The vote was, therefore, actually to “form a Palestinian state within the framework of a deal with the Saudis,” and “as always, Netanyahu is trying to cheat everyone,” Liberman added.
Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid claimed on Sunday that Netanyahu was intentionally trying to bring the issue of Palestinian statehood to the center of public discourse in order to distract the public from his government’s intention to push ahead with its plan to lengthen military service while maintaining a sweeping exemption for Haredi men.
In an attempt to bring back the spotlight to the issue of haredi service in the IDF, Lapid announced in a press conference ahead of his party’s weekly meeting on Monday that he has proposed a bill that “whoever draft-dodges shall not receive money.” Lapid also sent a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in which he wrote, “We cannot continue to fill the streets with slogans about ‘together we will win,’ if there is no ‘together we will enlist.'”