Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon: " 'Partial [Settlement] Freeze Unacceptable - We Will Fight It'

Israel National News reports that "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure from Washington to extend the settlement building moratorium, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding it should continue ahead of talks which began today in Sharm el-Sheikh. On the home front, Likud Ministers and members of Knesset have started to publicly pressure Netanyahu to keep his word on ending the freeze as scheduled on Sept. 26. Four Likud MKs have reportedly threatened to vote against the upcoming state budget if the freeze is extended." The settlement freeze on all West Bank construction has been in effect for nearly ten months. Israel adopted this freeze under the faulty assumption that it would earn Israel good will in Washington and elsewhere. However, it did not such thing. American pressure then shifted to construction in East Jerusalem with diplomatic tensions far higher than they have been in a long time. Now right-wing members of the Knesset are promising to block any attempt to extend this moratorium on construction, realizing that it achieved absolutely nothing, and probably had the opposite effect from that which was intended.

As MK Danny Danon correctly said: "The moratorium was a poor decision and I told the Prime Minister 10 months ago... I would not accept any partial freeze. It is unacceptable and the Prime Minister knows that... We feel that the Prime Minister knows that there is no partner for peace in Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas], but that he is still playing the game, and does not really believe a deal can be reached... You need to find a partner. We see that Abu Mazen has no control. We need to be very realistic. When there will be a real leadership, then we can negotiate. I prefer not to play a game of wishful thinking in order to satisfy the White House." Tweet