A majority of right-wing prime ministers have made decisions contrary to the right-wing path they campaigned on.
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The late Prime Minister Menachem Begin withdrew from the entire Sinai Peninsula and evicted the Sinai communities. He signed a document recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and proposed a plan for their autonomy.
His successor, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, did more to adhere to his party's diplomatic path than others. Nevertheless, he attended the 1991 Madrid Conference after years in which he had opposed it being held. In the Gulf War that year, he let rockets fired at Israel slide.
The late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was the patron of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. He came to power on the basis of the principle that the "fate of Netzarim [a kibbutz in the Gaza Strip periphery region] is the same as that of Tel Aviv. Yet he led the plan to disengage from Gaza and evict the Gush Katif communities. As a bonus, he also evicted the communities in northern Samaria.
Netanyahu, who led the opposition effort to the 1992 Oslo Accords, signed the 1997 Hebron Protocol and withdrew from a majority of the city as well as additional territory in Judea and Samaria following the 1998 Wye accord. In a speech at Bar-Ilan University, he expressed support for the establishment of a Palestinian state. He conducted negotiations with both Syrian Presidents Hafez and Bashar Assad on Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the 1967 borders and the eviction of settlements.
Although he has raised the banner of remaining steadfast in the face of terror and the opposition to prisoner-exchange deals with terrorist organizations and served as a sort of international symbol of leaders standing up to terror, Netanyahu signed the Gilad Schalit prisoner-exchange agreement that saw the release of over 1,000 terrorists, including many murderers, some of whom murdered Jews upon their release. He responded with restraint to arson terror on the Gaza border, and in the final days of his government, prevented the flag march from passing through Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. As a minister in Sharon's government, he voted for the eviction of communities in Gush Katif.
The only prime minister who does not appear on this list is Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. In the first year of his government, he did not deviate in any way from his diplomatic-security path. Unlike his predecessors, one cannot point to a series of "left-wing" decisions he made. Yet he is the one targeted by an unprecedented incitement campaign, slandered as a "left-wing traitor" and "crook," and forced to contend with threats on his and family members' lives.
Why do they persecute him? For one simple reason: He now occupies the seat registered in the name of the man who withdrew from Hebron, freed terrorists and murderers, agreed to withdraw from the Golan, responded to terror with restraint, and supported the disengagement.
Bennett's opponents, who cannot point to actions taken or decisions made by his government in opposition to the Right's worldview and policies, point to the fact that he established a government with the Meretz and the "terror-supporting" Ra'am parties.
Yet how is a prime minister assessed? Is it on the basis of their policies, decisions, and actions, or the composition of their government? The coalition formed with Meretz and Ra'am is the first since the Madrid Conference to not engage in negotiations with the Palestinians. Bennett is the only prime minister after the Oslo Accords to openly oppose a Palestinian state. The government with Meretz and Ra'am decided to promote the settlement of the Golan through a national plan the likes of which has not been since the first settlement was established there some 55 years ago, and Meretz supported the move. It was this government of all governments that decided on the establishment of 14 new communities in the Negev Region following decades of stagnation. This government changed the policy for responding to provocations from Gaza, and now every violation of Israeli sovereignty, including the launch of incendiary balloons and kites is met with a harsh response.
Israel has intensified the campaign between the wars, according to foreign reports, striking inside Iran for the first time. It restored the military option against Iran's nuclear program, and under this government, the flag march through Damascus Gate. The fact that all these actions were carried out under a government that counts Meretz as a member and Ra'am as a partner bolsters the public legitimacy for this path.
Today, we mark one year to the establishment of the Bennett government. Based on the facts, it would appear Bennett's detractors and opponents on the Right should recalculate their course.
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