"The building continues, and will continue for the next 10 months. At the end of 10 months, there will be in Yehuda and Shomron another 10,000 residents, in addition to the 300,000 who already live there," said Minister Benny Begin this evening. Begin is head of the team assigned to make sure the building freeze is upheld, and works together with Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Minister Begin made a speech at the conference, explaining that the government did not decide on a building freeze in a literal sense of the word. "We do not intend to put life on hold in Yehuda and Shomron. We never intended to do that."
Begin emphasized, "We are working today to clarify the conditions of the freeze, and we do not intend to freeze all life in Yesha. That was never out intention." The Minister continued, "We do not differentiate between isolated settlements and those that have been recognized by consensus. If we would have agreed to such categorizations, we would have defined the borders of the county before even beginning negotiations."

Before Begin made his speech, Knesset Member Tzippi Livni – head of the opposition – spoke at the conference. She criticized the new "national priorities" map as presented by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and said that the decision made on Wednesday marked "a political priority plan and not a budgetary one, and one that has nothing to do with actual national priorities. The government is suffering from political blindness. Those are places that every minister knows will one day no longer be within Israel's borders."

Livni added, "National priorities suggest the Galilee and the Negev, and maintaining the bigger settlement blocs."

Livni also commented on the referendum bill, with regard to giving up territory to the Palestinians: "Elections are the only referendum ... leaders must be voted into office based on a certain world view which they must then implement. I think it's wrong … to sterilize the whole purpose of decision-making and transfer it all to the public. Livni concluded, "Our leaders must make decisions without trying to make it easier by saying 'it is not we who are against this, it's the public.'"