Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies – The Israeli public – left, center-right, and right – expressed little support for the government’s decision to slow settlement construction in the West Bank announced on Wednesday.

The proposed 10-month settlement construction slowdown is, however, expected to pass through the country's cabinet meeting Sunday based on its full support by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Analysts say it was the leader's insistence that convinced 11 out of 14 members of the Security Cabinet to approve the proposal.

The proposal is “one step in the fight direction,” said Hagit Ofran, who directs a settlement monitoring project for the organization Peace Now, one day after the decision was announced, “but this government has shown it has many words and very little deeds,” she couched, echoing statements from US special envoy George Mitchell.

The two-state solution camp on the left, given total rejection of the deal by Palestinian leaders, were not immediately optimistic that the unilateral offer would succeed in bringing Palestinians to the negotiating table.

The only whole-hearted supporters seem to be the left-wing Zionist party Meretz, whose leader Eilan Gal’on was in full support of the program, publicly advising President Mahmoud Abbas to not “reject the opportunity and go back to negotiations with Israel.”

Dissent in Likud

Further to the right of the political spectrum, in Netanyahu’s Likud party, however, leaders were less optimistic that the plan would benefit Israel.

Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli-Yoel Edelstein said freezing settlement construction in the West Bank was akin to "freezing breeding” and said the move would lead to “later concessions and transferring Jews who want to settle the land of Israel."

The minister told the Jerusalem Post he would "not give [his] hand to a move that will endanger Israel's security without bringing us any closer to peace."

Likud MK Zion Pinyan told the Israeli Hebrew paper Ma’ariv, that “Likud is the bloc that must decide the issue of a settlement freeze or not,” rather than the Security Cabinet where the party is only partially represented.

Further dissent from Likud came from MK Danny Danon, who “came out squarely against his party chairman's decision” in an interview in the right-wing settler-backed news agency Arutz Sheva.

"For many years the settlements were considered by the Likud to be an asset…but the prime minister's decision now indicates that they are an obstacle. This is completely against the Likud platform, as well as the promises we gave less than a year ago to the voters,” Danon was quoted as saying. The MK said he would mobilize party support in an effort to quash the proposal when it is put in front of the Israeli cabinet on Sunday.

Danon called Netanyahu’s decision “dangerous” and an effort to appease the Americans.

"Three months ago, he said he would consider freezing construction in Judea and Samaria only after two conditions were met: major gestures from the Arab world, and re-starting the negotiating process with the PA. Today we see that he is paying full price, in cash, without either one," he concluded.

Right-wing divided

Netanyahu’s own foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, the chairman of the far-right Yisal Beiteinu and a resident of West Bank settlement, voted for the proposal, but said the move was not intended as a gesture toward Palestinians.

"The last thing that should interest us is the Palestinians' concern. Before the Palestinian issue, what should interest us is our friends in the world," Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Thursday, responding to Palestinians’ rejection of the plan. "We spoke to them and most said 'help us to help you'."

Yisrael Beiteinu MK Zevulun Orlev said the party was still studying the settlement proposal, noting leaders would consult with party clerics before stating their formal position.

Also on the right, the religious Shas party’s Chairman Eli Yishai told Israeli reporters that, "We will not agree to a building freeze even for one day. This move will not strengthen anyone, but will create a posture of weakness."

Two Shas ministers, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Housing Minister Ariel Attias, walked out of the Security Cabinet vote saying their party would "never agree to a freeze on settlement construction, even for one day."

Enforcement impossible

Though partial and temporary, Israeli officials registered their stance on the impossibility of enforcing the proposed new settlement policy. Even before the vote went ahead, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said the nation lacked the manpower to enforce a construction slow down.

Analysts in Palestine rejected the idea, noting the already massive military infrastructure in the West Bank, and suggesting military forces and border guards maintaining the siege on Gaza, which has seen no building supplies delivered since before Israel's war on the area, and the occupation of the West Bank, be used to enforce the ban on settlement construction.