Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which he informed him that he will not be bound by any recommendations made by the new "outposts team" that Netanyahu appointed.

According to Maariv, which reported on the letter Tuesday, Weinstein wrote:

"Let it be clear that the team´s work will not, in itself, serve as a reason for changing an opinion submitted by the state to the court regarding the removal of illegally built structures. A decision about the need and justification for requesting a postponement of court session dates will be made by me, in each case according to its merits."

Maariv calls Weinstein´s letter "a slap in the faces of the settlers" who hope that the "outposts team" will change the way the state´s legal mechanism treats Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in cases where there is a conflict with leftists and Arabs regarding land ownership.

The newspaper also diagnoses a power struggle within the Justice Ministry between Weinstein – who is both Attorney General and Legal Advisor to the Government, a combination considered a contradiction in terms by many legal experts – and the newly appointed outposts team.

The team is headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Edmond Levi – and nationalists hope it will undo the damage wreaked by the infamous Sasson Committee, which defined "illegal outposts" through an ultra- leftist prism.

Weinstein has already warned told the government that the outposts team will not be able to discuss homes that were built on private land and communities on which there is already a court ruling. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 02/21/12)