Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich addressed the calls heard lately for a hostage deal now and for fighting Hamas afterward at a party meeting today (Monday), saying “the saying that we can free hostages now and then return after a month or two months to eliminate Hamas is science fiction and a complete fraud.”
According to Smotrich, “We saw where this preconception of the politicians and generals, who dismissed the capabilities of the enemy, led us. And this also won’t bring about the freeing of the hostages but will only increase Sinwar’s appetite. I understand the demand of the families of the hostages to do absolutely everything to bring them home, but as former MK Geula Cohen ob”m said: ‘If my son was a captive, I would demand the government pay any price to free him, but you, the ministers of the government, should not heed me.”
“Therefore, Smotrich continued, “I embrace you, understand and identify with your struggle to return your loved ones and therefore I also think that fairness towards you is to tell you the truth and not delude you which unfortunately other politicians are doing, some from political considerations and others perhaps from blindness and lack of judgement. There is no Israeli or Jew in the world who does not feel the pain which tears the heart and the deep suffering at the fact that women, adults, and children who did not sin or commit crimes are now in the captivity of the Nazi murderers in Gaza.”