An Ethiopian Journal

Opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu will increase construction in existing West Bank settlements to keep pace with the population’s natural growth if he is elected prime minister, the Likud leader told the Walla Web site in a pre-Rosh Hashana interview on Sunday.

That would be a dramatic shift from the current government, which has approved only a limited number of haredi housing projects in the settlements, as a gesture to Shas. Netanyahu has pledged to allow construction in all existing settlements.

His comments garnered criticism from both left- and right-wing MKs.

While the Left warned that Netanyahu would outrage the international community and prevent an agreement with the Palestinians, the Right doubted he was telling the truth.

“I don’t understand why there can be natural growth in Arab neighborhoods, but not in Jewish neighborhoods,” Netanyahu said. “There is a difference between the plans of a family that has more children and wants to close off its balcony, and the building of additional neighborhoods. There is no reason why there shouldn’t be development of existing [Jewish] neighborhoods.”

He said there was currently no chance of a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority and that therefore, the only option was an economic arrangement. He said that after such an agreement had been kept properly, a peace deal could be examined.

He also proudly referred to construction in Jerusalem during his time as prime minister, which he said substantially outstripped that under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

“In Jerusalem, which is now being treated like a settlement, I built Har Homa, which protects Jerusalem from the South, and in addition, I also built the Ma’aleh Hazeitim neighborhood,” he said, referring to an enclave of Jewish homes surrounded by Arab neighborhoods on the capital’s Mount of Olives.

Meretz faction chairwoman Zehava Gal-On said she hoped Netanyahu’s statements would persuade her constituents of the need to avoid elections that polls show Netanyahu could win. She said coalition talks on Monday had made progress and that new Kadima leader Tzipi Livni agreed with Meretz that settlements must be frozen.

“What Netanyahu said is yet another reason why we need a new government under Livni with Meretz as an integral component,” Gal-On said. “Building in the settlements will put spokes in the wheels of any future agreement with the Palestinians.”

Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Oppenheimer said he was glad that Netanyahu was admitting publicly that he would build in the settlements instead of moving to the center of the political map.

“The public has to know that he is not centrist and he does not believe in any diplomatic compromise,” Openheimer said. “People must remember that Netanyahu resigned from the government ahead of the disengagement and that if he were in power, we would still be in Gaza.

“Netanyahu has remained the same Netanyahu, who still believes in Greater Israel and is as dangerous as ever.”

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said Netanyahu’s comments were a welcome relief.

“It is refreshing to hear that there are still potential leaders of this country who grasp the reality of the Zionist vision,’ Dayan said.

National Union MK Arye Eldad attacked Netanyahu from the other side, saying he would never forgive him for voting in favor of the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, even though he later left the government to protest disengagement. Eldad said he would only believe Netanyahu’s statements about expanding settlements if he formed a right-wing government, and not the national-unity coalition that the Likud leader has repeatedly said he would lead.

“If I see him form a nationalist government, I will believe him,” Eldad said. “If he forms a government with the Left, it will be clear that he will do what Ariel Sharon did and evacuate settlements, and perhaps even form a Palestinian state. I take what he says with a grain of salt because voting in favor of evacuating the Jewish communities of Gush Katif is a black stain from which he can never recover.”

Netanyahu reiterated that the Likud would not join a coalition built by new Kadima leader Tzipi Livni and urged her to call for elections.

“It is preferable to end the instability of the government soon instead of dragging out the issue for six months to a year and only then going to elections,” he said. “Stability will only be possible when elections are behind us, not in front of us. Specifically for this reason, we must block all attempts to circumvent the voice of the electorate. When the people decide that I should lead, I will set up a stable government. Not going to elections guarantees instability.”

Netanyahu said that Israel must never come to terms with a nuclear-armed Teheran.

“We must not in any way accept the idea of a nuclear Iran,” he said. [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad talks of our destruction in order to prepare the world for this very possibility,” he said. “Our policy must be clear – no to a nuclear Iran.”