Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and other members of Israel’s governing coalition lashed out at former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over the weekend after he suggested that the creation of a Palestinian state can be discussed in six to eight years.

“The transformation process is complete. Good luck in the race for the leadership of the left against Lapid and Yair Golan,” the Likud’s Chikli, who parted ways with Bennett after the latter formed a coalition with Yesh Atid Party chief Yair Lapid and the Islamist Ra’am Party in 2021, tweeted on Thursday.

In video footage obtained by Israel’s Channel 14 News earlier on Thursday, Bennett did not rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“What we need to do in the short term is reduce friction with the Palestinians—improve their dignity, their autonomy—but not give up our security, and we can debate a Palestinian state in six years, maybe eight years,” the former premier told attendees at a conference in Frankfurt hosted by Germany’s Bild daily and Keren Hayesod—United Israel Appeal.

Bennett once headed the Yesha Council umbrella group of Judea and Samaria communities and ran in the March 2021 election on a platform that opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Channel 14 report noted.

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, who resigned as coalition whip shortly before the Bennett-Lapid coalition collapsed in June 2022, tweeted on Thursday, “I assume that in exchange for a premiership, it will be possible to shorten the period to 2-4 years.”

The Likud Party, which welcomed Chikli and Silman into its ranks ahead of the 2022 vote in which Bennett did not run, charged that the former prime minister “has not freed himself from the shackles” of Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas.

“After the terrible massacre on October 7, we cannot reward terrorism and enable a Palestinian state,” Likud said. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has already proven over the past 20 years that he is the only barrier to the creation of a terror state between the [Mediterranean] Sea and Jordan.”

Likud Knesset member Keti Shitrit added, “After the massacre on the 7th of October, even the leftists have become disillusioned and do not see a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. So how is it that the former CEO of the Yesha Council thinks that this can happen in 6-8 years?”

Responding to the Channel 14 News report on X, Bennett described the broadcaster’s translation of his remarks to Hebrew as a “complete fake.”

He “said in this speech what he always says: He opposes a Palestinian state. Period. Exactly the opposite of the false report on 14, unlike Netanyahu who declared his support for a Palestinian state and gave large areas to [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat,” he tweeted.

“Bennett also said it is possible and necessary to establish a broad unity government even with people who think differently, and since everyone now agrees that it is not the time for a Palestinian state, it is possible in 6-8 years to continue to debate among ourselves,” said the retired PM.

In June, Bennett hinted at a return to politics. “Three years ago today, I took the oath of allegiance as the 13th Prime Minister of the State of Israel,” he wrote on X, adding: “We did it then, and we can do it again. We will establish a state here that is worthy of this people.”

Two surveys last year found that some two-thirds of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria support the Oct. 7 attacks, in which around 6,000 Palestinian terrorists broke through the border, murdered some 1,200 people, wounded thousands more and took more than 250 hostages.

In July, Knesset lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The motion, put forward by opposition MK Ze’ev Elkin of the New Hope Party with support from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, passed 68 to 9.

The Knesset opposes “a Palestinian state on any piece of land west of the Jordan River. The existence of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel will pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, will further extend the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict and be a source of destabilization for the entire region,” the July 18 resolution states.

(JNS)