After he and two other members of the Otzma Yehudit party voted against the hostage deal, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir explained the reasons for this decision in a long post published on social media.
“The role of the leadership is to look the citizens in the eye and tell them the truth!” Ben Gvir said. “The event before us is not a simple event. All our hearts are left bleeding on the table. The life of our loved ones is held in the balance. The decisions are all difficult, and it does not matter what decision is made.”
“There is an advantage in the deal which was approved yesterday, per which it seems that some of the children and women kidnapped are coming home. This is very gladdening and unites us all, and we have an enormous moral duty to bring this moment.”
“But in the same breath, we also have a moral duty to bring them all back (!), and we have no right and permission to agree to the idea of their separation and the return of only part. We certainly cannot accept that as part of a deal where we free the terrorists, their youth, we will not get back all! The women, children, field intelligence observers, and everyone left behind.”!
“The deal is not moral”
“We need to tell the truth: a deal which leaves some of the children and women in Gaza, is not moral in my eyes, not logical, and in my view – very, very far from completion! It can and should have been otherwise,” Ben Gvir stated.
“Hamas wanted this time out more than anything. It also wanted to ‘get rid of’ the women and children in the first stage, because these caused international pressure on it, it wanted to get fuel, freeing of terrorists, the stopping of IDF actions and even a prohibition on flights. They got all this.”
“The deal is a dangerous precedent, which changes the equation and could bring about additional incidents. Especially when additional citizens remain hostages, and there isn’t even negotiation over the IDF soldiers being held hostage. We see in the clearest way how the military pressure brings results. This is the time for more effort, more increasing of pressure to break Hamas, and we could have reached a different result,” he said.
I Knew We’d Be Attacked If We Object
“The problem Israel is once again captive of a preconception, again repeating the errors of the past, and in fact Sinwar is continuing his plan and instead of bringing Hamas to its knees, Israel is accepting its dictates.”
“If we add to this the fact that Hamas needs the ceasefire like oxygen to breathe, that the deal effectively gives Hamas time to reorganize, that stopping the IDF soldiers while they charge harms and endangers them, and that the deal where we introduce fuel which we know whose hands it will reach, and we’ve all already learned: fuel = weapons, and more limitations we agreed to accept like not operating drones precisely in such a critical stage, lead to the conclusion that this deal is not right!”
“The pressure on Hamas is enormous. The IDF is advancing and they are under pressure. The new conditions for terrorists in prisons by us help the pressure. Precisely now, we should not have stopped and this is a historic error.”
“I knew, I knew that if we don’t agree with the deal, there would be those who would attack and hurl criticism,” Ben Gvir continued, “I also know that advancing the death penalty would lead to a political attack, but I also know that we have a historic responsibility that I as a cabinet and government member am responsible for all the women and children held hostage right now in Gaza, for all our soldiers there and throughout the country and also all the citizens – this responsibility as well as the responsibility that we must not have another October 7 led us at Otzma Yehudit to vote against.”
He ended with: “We did this not without dilemmas, not without doubts and worries and concerns, but with the knowledge that a leadership needs to make hard decisions and choose among bad alternatives. In my eyes, every minute that our hostages are in Gaza is very bad but even worse is that there are hostages who will continue to be there after the deal and it is also very bad that we continue with the same preconception and bring a deal which in my view endangers the lives of many civilians and the wellbeing of IDF soldiers.”
