Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Jewish Home faction, warned that Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s view that the residents of Gaza can be persuaded to topple the Hamas government was insane, hollow and dangerous. Minister Bennett called the developing agreement between Israel and Hamas “Oslo II,” which the top Israeli Education Minister viewed as a disastrous accord. Bennet further stressed that it was a serious and irresponsible mistake that would allow Hamas to accelerate its rocket production and threaten Israel’s population centers in the near future. In response to Minister Bennett’s comments, officials from Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu faction said that Bennett was frequently absent from the Israeli security cabinet meetings, in which Gaza was discussed. Therefore, the Education Minister was clearly not an expert on the particulars. They continued by underscoring that there has been a disagreement between the responsible and state-oriented right, represented by Minister Lieberman, and the messianic and populist right, represented by Minister Bennett, who support a bi-national state and Israel’s reoccupation of the Palestinian enclave.
