Bezalel Smotrich: "It would have been much easier to join the chorus and back the deal - but we didn’t"

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke a short while ago (Monday) at the beginning of the meeting of the Religious Zionist faction in the Knesset, which takes place every Monday.

At first, he said: "There is no Jew who is not happy to see our brothers and sisters return home. There is no Jew who does not feel deep sorrow, concern and anger at their situation and the harsh and shocking conditions in which they were held in the Hamas tunnels and in which some of our brothers are still held. It wouls have been the easiest thing for us to join the choir and connect to the human and Jewish emotion that is so natural and to support the deal. We could have been the darling of the families and received a warm media hug if we had only joined the herd."

"But," the minister explained, "my responsibility as a leader and as a public emissary is for the State of Israel, its future and its security, and this obliges me to oppose the abandonment of millions of citizens of the State of Israel and of Jews around the world who will pay the heavy and terrible price of continuing the deal. I am under fire for my stance against the deal, including painful and harsh statements from the families of the hostages and others. But I am steadfast in my opposition out of national responsibility."

"History," the minister added, "will not forgive short-sighted and irresponsible politicians who have been cooperating with Hamas propaganda for many months and are trying to push Israel to surrender and lose the war. Politicians who want to turn this war instead of victory into "another round" followed by the next massacre, and the next kidnappers and the next round, and so on. We will not give in to this dangerous populism in any way."

While speaking Smotrich was confronted by former hostage Ofer Calderon's nephew, who held up a photo of Ofer back together with his family and said: "This is the photo that you tried to prevent being taken! How are we different from the Nazis on the other side of the fence if we sacrifice our brothers and sisters."

"They ask me," the minister continued, "if you oppose the deal, then how will we return the hostages? So here's my way: We have to take all the anger, rage and revenge and take it out on the murderers in Hamas. Not to go back to doing "more of the same thing", but to go back and fight in a different way. The transfer of humanitarian aid to Hamas must be completely stopped. To stop the entry and exit of the security forces while endangering our soldiers."

He claimed: "To occupy territory permanently as a response to the terrible massacre and to prevent the next massacre. Look at Hamas's jubilation at the IDF's withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor in what they define as "the renewed liberation of the land." They don't care about tens of thousands of dead terrorists or destroyed homes. Only the land interests them, and this must be taken for them in order to hurt, to illustrate the price of loss and to deter any enemy anywhere in the world."

"And of course," the minister added, "to take active and determined action to open the gates in order to encourage the emigration of Gaza residents, in cooperation with President Trump, who fully understands the root of the conflict and the only realistic solution. Only in this way can we really do everything, but everything, to free all the hostages and destroy the Hamas threat out of strength."

"Mr. Prime Minister," Smotrich said to Netanyahu: "This plan must be brought to the Cabinet for approval as soon as possible in order to prepare for immediate action immediately after the completion of the first stage of the deal. This is the only realistic way to force Hamas to surrender, raise a white flag and flee for its life in exchange for the release of all the abductees, down to the last of them. The current path of returning to talks in Qatar, which supports terrorism, is only intended to buy time for Hamas. The hostages are Hamas's insurance policy and their hope is to continue to hold on to power forever by holding on to the abductees, so you have to be naïve, not to say naïve, to think that they will return them to us voluntarily without ensuring that they remain in power forever, and we can't afford that, of course."