Haaretz editions in Hebrew and English. Photo: Hmbr via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – As the Israel Defense Forces’ Operation Protective Edge got underway in Gaza, the Haaretz newspaper hosted a peace conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday attended by a number of senior Israeli political and defense officials.

“There is no compromise with shelling when there is danger hanging over children’s heads,” President Shimon Peres said at the event.

Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett prompted continuous boos from the audience, despite attempts by the conference organizers to restore quiet.

“No one in this room will lecture me about wanting peace,” he said. “No one in Israel wants peace more than me. We have been in this land for thousands of years, since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Judges, through King David and King Solomon and the Hasmoneans. A people cannot be ‘occupiers’ of their own nation.”

Bennett, who attended the conference without a security detail, reported that he was punched in the back after his speech. Aides and hotel guards extracted him from the scene. Bennett aides said he would not file a police complaint.