Benny Katzover, chairman of the grassroots Samaria Residents’ Council, is unimpressed by Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, despite all of the standing ovations. Katzover – a respected member of the pioneer generation of Samaria settler leaders – admitted that Netanyahu’s oration “was impressive and received great respect.” “But this respect was given to him because he pretended to represent authentic Jewish values,” he went on. “In fact, however, he filled up the bucket and then proceeded to empty it of water.” “He is continuing down the slippery slope of ‘two states for two nations’ from the Bar Ilan speech,” Katzover told Arutz Sheva ’s Hebrew-language news magazine. “Every child knows that leaving only the [dense] settlement blocs [in Israeli hands] means giving over 90% of the territory and marking more than 100,000 Jews for eviction.” Netanyahu is following in the footsteps of Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, Katzover said. “He keeps selling out another bit and another one, and in this way makes everything crumble. He knows he’s lying and that there will be many more communities outside the blocs. He spoke yesterday of a dramatic demographic change near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. These are precisely the classic blocs of Sharon and Olmert, and all those who wanted to sell out Judea and Samaria.” “I am sorry to say that he keeps on loosening the wall. He cannot declare that this is the Land of our Forefathers and continue to trade it away. There is damage on the consciousness level, even if his speech is not practical at this point. He basically gave a message that what we established will not necessarily survive, as if there is no choice but to accommodate the Palestinians.”
