Last Thursday, a regional emergency conference was held on the issue of the Deal of the Century in Kfar Etzion, initiated by Yamina candidate Sara Beck.
Key activists from the region and from outside it, including some of the first of the residents of the area, were present amid concern over the establishment of a Palestinian state as indicated in the Deal of the Century.
Among the participants were Col. (res) Ron Shechner, formerly head of the Yesha Council, Adv. Elyakim Ha’ezni and his son Boaz, Rabbi Amichai Gordin of Yeshivat Har Etzion, Noam Arnon, spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, Amitai Porat, secretary of the Kibbutz Hadati, Menashe Levinger, Adv. Simcha Rothman of Pnei Kedem, Meir Indor, Chairman of Almagor, Yaron Rosenthal, director of Kfar Etzion School, Edna Elmakas of Har Gilo, Itzik Rosenberg, former Gush Etzion regional council engineer, Shivi and Tzuri Froman of Tekoa.
During the discussion, concern was raised about the prospects and dangers of the plan, and its implications from the viewpoints of security, law, and settlement.
Elyakim Ha’ezni came out against the plan: "The plan is poison wrapped up with candy. And the Americans want us to swallow it all together: the dangerous Palestinian state - which is irreversible and has international implications - with Israeli sovereignty, which is reversible by future governments. Netanyahu must not be allowed to pass the plan he initiated."
Amitai Porat and Rabbi Gordin expressed concern about the establishment of a Palestinian state and isolated communities. However, they said that the plan should be made the best of and called to "push for the application of sovereignty that will benefit residents' lives, without accepting the idea of the Palestinian state."
Ron Shechner and Itzik Rosenberg expressed concern about the implications of the plan - including the security isolation of communities, the freeze and more.
Rosenberg noted, "We must utilize the hour for necessary and immediate arrangements if the plan is to be implemented, like planned roads waiting for approval and budget."
During the discussion, Noam Arnon presented the planned map and showed that in stark contrast to what was said at the Washington ceremony about the meaning and importance of Hebron, on the map Hebron was entirely handed over to PLO control, a step which clearly means the elimination of any Jewish presence there. The claim that “the Arabs won’t agree to the plan anyway” does not eliminate the serious and disastrous significance of the Israeli government's consent to such a map, he said, calling to immediately announce the nullity of this declaration and all it implies.
On the other hand, Tzuri and Shivi Froman claimed that they were not worried about a Palestinian state, which they said already exists to a large extent today, but that real solutions to our continued life in Judea and Samaria would actually come from dialogue with the Arabs. According to them, the plan is an option in that it assumes that the presence of the Jewish communities in this area is a fact, just as the Arabs’ presence here is a fact.