Tzipi Livni, who is running for Knesset at the head of an independent party, blamed Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett for the violence at the Oz Tzion outpost near Beit El Friday.
“Bennett and the extremist rabbis led people to that hilltop on purpose, in order to create friction with IDF soldiers and a situation in which they would refuse orders,” Livni wrote on her Facebook page.
“These extremists led the people there on Sabbath eve in the knowledge that our children, the IDF soldiers, would have to evict them,” she explained. “Netanyahu, who continues to wink toward the extremist right wing and his natural allies, stopped the eviction.”
“From his point of view and that of his extremist partners, everything except for the Sabbath can be violated. They create this confrontation on purpose in order to then say that they cannot obey orders, and that is the most serious thing.”
MK Shaul Mofaz, who heads Kadima, also blamed nationalist parties for the confrontation Friday. “Whoever lifts his hand against the IDF and security forces, it is as if he lifted his hand against the State of Israel, and he should be jailed,” said Mofaz.
Bennett reacted to Livni’s accusation after the Sabbath on his own Facebook page, under the heading, “You Too, Tzipi Livni?”
He noted that last Saturday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked him during the Sabbath, and that now Livni has done the same thing.
“I finished doing the havdala blessing with my family after a pleasant, quiet Shabbat at home, I turned on the news and saw that Tzipi Livni is attacking me. ‘Bennett and the extremist rabbis led people to that hilltop on purpose, in order to create friction with IDF soldiers and a situation in which they would refuse orders.’
“What hill? What rabbis? Whom did I lead? What the heck are you talking about?”
Bennett noted again that the attacks on him during the Sabbath create a situation in which he cannot respond while he is being attacked, because he is religious.
“If there is an illegal outpost that requires eviction, it can be done on a week day and not on the Sabbath,” he added. “Nu, really – a little common sense never hurt anyone.”
