Speaking to Ma’ariv, Israel’s Industry, Trade, and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor Party) said over the weekend:

In the current sociopolitical situation, only a leader from the Right could pass a peace process through the nation.

[Prime Minister Menachem] Begin returned the Sinai. Could a Labor leader do that? Could a Labor leader have dared evacuate Gaza and destroy the settlements?

[Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin was killed just for Oslo [1993 accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization]. Does anyone think I could have evacuated Gaza? Only a leader from the Right could bring such a change. There is nothing we can do. That’s the reality. Take it or leave it.

In Ben-Eliezer’s mind, the relationship between Israeli right and left is almost independent from each other. The left can show no progress while the right has given all the “concessions” for the sake of the peace process. Indeed, he accused Labor of having a “self-destructive virus” and of failing to develop a new generation of leaders.

Israel-Palestine: Peres Says Settlements Halt When Peace Talks Start

Ben-Eliezer praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the close relationship between the premier and Defense Minister Ehud Barak:
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