On Wednesday morning, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid sharply criticized Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing him of lacking the desire to bring the hostages back to Israel.
Lapid believes that the proper approach is to negotiate directly with the Hamas terrorist group, rather than relying on public statements. During the October 7 massacre, Hamas and other terrorist organizations kidnapped 255 people, mostly Israeli civilians, taking them to Gaza. While Israel has successfully rescued some hostages through military operations, the majority of those released were freed in exchanges for dangerous terrorists, many of whom were serving life sentences. There is significant opposition to these deals, especially given that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who orchestrated the October 7 massacre, was released in a 2011 deal in which Israel freed 1,027 terrorists, 82% of whom returned to terrorism after their release. At the time of his release, Sinwar had no blood on his hands and was a relatively unknown figure, but he began planning the massacre immediately after being freed.
“What needed to happen was to make a single deal and bring everyone home,” Lapid told Kan Reshet Bet, referring to the current arrangement, which is spread over three stages. Only 33 hostages, eight of whom have already died, are set to return in the first stage. He emphasized, “What needs to happen now is to continue the current deal and complete it – they should not stop now.”
Lapid further asserted that the Israeli government bears the responsibility, despite Hamas’ repeated violations of the ceasefire and their own announcement of its suspension. “We are dealing with animals, a criminal terror group – it’s obvious that it will always be chaotic. The government’s job is to bring back the hostages,” he stated.
Regarding the government’s decision to halt negotiations for the second stage of the deal in response to Hamas’ declaration, Lapid remarked, “If this pressure on Hamas brings the release of the hostages, then it’s totally fine. But at the end of the day, the task is one thing: To bring them home.”
When asked about Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s ultimatum to Hamas, Lapid said: “At the end, if we want to reach a situation in which we cancel the stages and the groups and we make one deal, that’s not through a unilateral announcement by Smotrich. We need to start an organized process with the negotiators. I’m very much in favor [of it].”
“I am in favor of eliminating Hamas, but first we must bring all the hostages home, and the price of that will be, in the meantime, ending the war. There’s no doubt that Hamas will violate [the deal] later on,” Lapid added.
Lapid also predicted that the situation would be resolved by the time Hamas is scheduled to release hostages on Shabbos: “Hamas initiated a crisis on Monday; I believe that means that they want to solve it by Saturday.”
{Matzav.com Israel}