Interview: Likud Yechiel Leiter; I was grossly misrepresented by Yisrael
Hayom article

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 7 December 2008

Yechiel Leiter is a candidate in the Likud Primaries being held this Monday.
IMRA interviewed Leiter in a mixture of Hebrew and English on 7 December.

IMRA: There is an item on page 4 of today's edition of Yisrael Hayom
reporting that you might support the removal of isolated settlements.

Leiter: In today's paper?

IMRA: Yes. "[Settlers] don't like this and argue that when one talks about
settlement blocs that this endangers all the rest. I think that in order to
not rule over another people, it is possible to forego 10 percent of the
area." Shlomo Tzena is quoting you on page 4 of Yisrael Hayom. Is that an
accurate quote?

Leiter: Can you read it again?

IMRA: Yechiel Leiter, who is running on the national list in the primaries
of the Likud, calls for foregoing control over the Palestinian cities and
gathering in settlement blocs. Leiter, a settlement resident, who served in
the past as the head of Netanyahu's office, said that our red lines should
be set for negotiations, which include requiring security zones and control
of water sources but do not rule out in practice the evacuation of
settlements located deep within the territory. Leiter, a settler from Eli
in Samaria, who is from the religious Zionist camp, explains that he knows
that his fellow settlers "don't like this and argue that when one talks
about settlement blocs that this endangers all the rest. I think that in
order to not rule over another people, it is possible to forego 10 percent
of the area."

Leiter: Everything that is written is correct except that I am prepared to
evacuate communities.

IMRA: What does this mean in practice?

Leiter: I am saying that in order to solve a demographic problem of 12% you
don't give up on 100%. We have a demographic problem which is in 12% of the
area, which is Ramallah, and Jenin and the other Arabs cities and I am not
prepared to rule over another people and I am not prepared to uproot
settlements.

What I want to do is begin incremental annexation. I don't want to save the
annexation for the end of the process. I want to determine now what are the
areas which we are going to annex and they are defined by three areas: the
settlement blocs in the largest sense of the expression, security areas and
water resources which comprises about 50% of the area.

IMRA: When you say "not ruling another people? In an autonomy set-up do
you consider Israel ruling over another people if they have autonomy?

Leiter No. We are not ruling over another people right now. They have
autonomy.

Peace has to come bottom up and not top down. The whole concept of Oslo was
to force peace upon us from the top for establishing a ruler who was
supposed to establish a civil society. What he established was a terrorist
society. A tyrannical society.

What we've got to do is develop it from the bottom up.

They can start with individual limited local autonomy and in twenty five
years we will see where it goes. We have to bring up a generation of people
who have not been educated on textbooks that erase Israel from the world
maps and incite for terror.

IMRA: And as for the status of isolated Jewish communities?

Leiter: People who don't think through what I am saying conclude that I am
saying that if there are communities that are not in the settlement blocs
that they should be removed.

Absolutely not.

What I am saying is that if you look at the pattern of the establishment of
settlements you see that they were generally established with a certain plan
in mind. They are juxtaposed to areas for defense and water.

After you draw the line, in the maximum sense, for settlement blocs, I said
that there are eleven communities that would be hard to include in that
first stage.

I didn't say to uproot them.

I was misquoted before and apparently Tzena still doesn't understand what I
am saying.

I am the first one to say that I am in favor of annexing. Of taking the
initiative, taking the momentum of unilateralism and turning it around.
Using the Bush letter to turn it around and start with annexation.

Obviously because annexation is a juridical term, we have to start a
development process around the three areas and indicate that this is what we
are going to annex. We cannot do that [AL: annex] unilaterally. But that
is what we should be moving towards.

I think that if we take the momentum that we can change the terms of
engagement and change the political paradigm regarding Judea and Samaria.

But people don't stop to listen. And right away "Ah! So you want to uproot
communities".

I do not want to uproot communities. I don't want to uproot a pebble. All
my life I have been involved in building outposts and communities, doing
everything to hold onto the land.

I remain in Eli despite that I have a special child who requires special
education and I have to drive to Jerusalem each day.

So they should stop with this baloney. I am not for uprooting anything.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il