The Israeli political-security cabinet approved Wednesday evening Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to halt construction in the West Bank settlements for a period of 10 months.
 
Eleven ministers voted in favor of the plan, while Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau opposed the initiative, which was coordinated with the US in an effort to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
 
Netanyahu called the freeze "not a simple step, not an easy one, which has much more advantages than disadvantages." "Under the international circumstances that have been created, this move advances the broader national interests of Israel," said Netanyahu. "It allows us to present the world with a simple truth: the Israeli government wants to enter negotiations with the Palestinians, is taking practical steps in order to do so, and is very serious in its intentions of promoting peace."
 
Israeli Science Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, who is also the chairman of the Habayit Hayehudi faction, voiced his firm opposition to the Israeli prime minister's and the defense minister's proposal. The minister demanded that every such decision be conditioned on a cabinet decision. "A rightist government must not choke the settlements, but help them," said Minister Hershkowitz.
 
Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan said in response to the freeze proposal that "the Netanyahu cabinet was elected for its promise to develop the settlement of Judea and Samaria."
 
"Immediately after being established, the government constricted the settlements' steps. Now, it is passing into the stage of chasing and taking out the settlements," said Dayan. "The government ministers are responsible for blocking this."
 
The matters discussed in the meeting included the need to sign orders, issuing a construction prohibition map in accordance with a general's order, defining communities' borders, imposing sanctions on heads of communities and councils, arresting and banning youth involved in building exceptions, framing caravan operators in the West Bank and closing them with the help of the Shin Bet and police, defining illegal construction as a criminal activity, quick demolition of any new construction, etc.
 
It was also decided to focus on the Amana settlement movement and to appoint an inter-ministerial team to implement its conclusions.
 
Sources close to the Israeli prime minister clarified that the expected decision, which was coordinated and agreed upon a long time ago, had nothing to do with the impending prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.
 
Palestinian officials rejected the expected Israeli offer to partially freeze West Bank settlement construction, even before it was made public.
 
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that any freeze that did not include occupied east Jerusalem was unacceptable. The Palestinians have refused to reopen peace talks with Israel until it halts all settlement construction.
 
Netanyahu's plan for a 10-month freeze in West Bank settlement construction drew a wave of verbal attacks, with rightist-wingers accusing him of betraying his electoral base. "It can't be possible that Netanyahu is spitting in the faces of those to whom he promised less than a year ago that he would constitute an alternative to Sharon's policy of uprooting," said MK Yaakov Katz, the chairman of the National Union.
 
He was referring to former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
 
Right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir accused Netanyahu of betraying the State of Israel. "The time has for the right to fight Netanyahu the same way they fought Rabin, Olmert, Sharon, and Barak," he said, in reference to former Israeli premiers who were the target of rightist attacks.
 
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), meanwhile, said members of Netanyahu's Likud party had given the Israeli premier "the right to lead Israel to disaster." Ben-Ari added: "Netanyahu's decree of a settlement freeze is a capitulation the likes of which we haven't known since the days of Rabin."
 
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