Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich told Army Radio today (Monday) that he does not support "risking 2000 or 200" people to save 20 in a hostage deal.
Smotrich, whose party represents a large constituency living in Judea and Samaria, said that he represents a group "which would be the first to pay the price of the deal" in the event prisoners freed to that area engage in terrorism again.
He also noted that defeating Hamas takes priority over the freeing of the hostages based on the order of the government's war aims as approved by the cabinet.
In reference to the hostage deal leading to a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia, Smotrich said that if such a deal leads to even "a millimeter" of progress towards a Palestinian state, "it won't happen, period."
While Smotrich called the deal "bad" from the start, he did not resign from the government or pull his party out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, unlike Otzmah Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir who did both.
Smotrich explained in a Facebook post yesterday that he did not believe in leaving the government, as that would create an even worse situation for Israel than if he stayed in.
For starters, if he left the government, Netanyahu would be dependent on the votes of the center-left opposition and would be beholden to them to stay in power. If they withdrew their support, this would lead to new elections and a new center-left government which would end the war entirely.
Smotrich said that he preferred to stay in the government to try and ensure that the war against Hamas is restarted as soon as possible by the end of the first phase of the hostage deal.
Despite this opposition, Smotrich joined with the rest of Israel to welcome the three hostages released from Hamas captivity yesterday.
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