We Were Here Before You....And We Will Be Here After You

I've been wondering if Prime Minister Netanyahu actually had a set of balls recently.  He caved into the demand to release murders to the PA, he acts as if Israel will return to the Auschwitz borders, he acts as a defeatist.  Until this happened in the Knesset.

Arabs were not in Israel before the Jewish people, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asserted early Thursday morning before the Knesset vote on the referendum bill.



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The bill passed in its first reading with 66 MKs in favor and 45 opposed. The legislation reinforces existing law by upgrading it to a Basic Law, which means it would have constitutional status in the eyes of the Supreme Court. The current law requires a referendum on any concession of sovereign territory, in a peace treaty or as a unilateral move. Sovereign territory does not include Judea and Samaria, but it includes all of Jerusalem and any land swaps.

During the debate, MK Mordechai Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) said “the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” and MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) responded: “We [Arabs] were here before you and we’ll be here after you.”

In an unusual move, Netanyahu asked to take the podium and said to Zahalka: “The first part isn’t true, and the second won’t be.”

Many MKs stood up and applauded, which is against the Knesset’s rules.

Soon after, Netanyahu posted the exchange on Facebook and Twitter, and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett wrote on Facebook that he’s proud of Netanyahu.

“We were here first, because it says so in the Torah,” UTJ MK Moshe Gafni pointed out, and Finance Minister Yair Lapid – who rarely agrees with Gafni on anything – shouted out “that’s right.”

Bennett passionately defended the referendum bill, which his party insisted be advanced by this week before the Knesset went on recess, and argued with opposition MKs who spoke out against it.

“You in Shas want to teach me about loving the Land of Israel? [MK] Arye Deri is scolding me? The Land of Israel was divided on your backs!” Bennett said incredulously, referring to the Oslo Accords.

The Bayit Yehudi leader added that he doesn’t understand why the Left is so concerned about a referendum if they think the nation wants two states for two nations.

Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke out in favor of the bill and accused Labor of hypocrisy, saying the party always supported referendums in the past.

“When a decision is made and we are on opposite sides, no one wants the final call to be made by deserters that are seduced by benefits,” Sa’ar added, referring to the way the Oslo Accords were approved by the Knesset.

Coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) said that the reason the existing Referendum Law needs to become a Basic Law is because of the Supreme Court’s “unprecedented invasion of the Knesset’s authority.”

“As one of the people who proposed this bill, I hope we will never have to use it,” he added.

Deputy Minister for Liaison with the Knesset Ofir Akunis, who cosponsored the original referendum bill in the previous Knesset, said “a public issue that divides our society more than any other should be determined by the whole population.

They will go to the polls and decide whether to accept an agreement the government reached.”

“Oslo II was passed because of a Mitsubishi [given to a new deputy minister]. The disengagement was authorized by the government only after two ministers who disagreed with then-prime minister Ariel Sharon were fired,” Akunis said. “We can’t have more tricks like this. The referendum bill will prevent them.”

MK Merav Michaeli (Labor) said that “the Bayit Yehudi doesn’t want to let us reach a peace agreement and are looking for any way to torpedo it.”

According to MK Muhammad Barakei (Hadash), the coalition is trying to create a “semi-fascist dictatorship.”

Expressing opposition to the bill from a different standpoint, MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) said “A referendum will legitimize removing Jews from their homes.”

Shas MK Avraham Michaeli said that a referendum is a “trick” and Bayit Yehudi’s voters will not forgive the party.

“This is one of the saddest days in the history of Israeli democracy,” MK Yisrael Hasson (Kadima) told ministers. “I don’t trust you, and I don’t have any expectations from you.”

I wonder what game Bibi Netanyahu is playing?  First he sounds and acts like a defeatist.  Now he sounds like the old Bibi.  The man who would not compromise.  The man with the set of balls the size of watermelons.

The Member of the Knesset have stood up for their ancestors and their future today.  Let us hope it isn't an empty gesture.