Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, who is a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, said on Wednesday morning that the political echelon was exposed during the war to a detailed strategic plan by Iran for the destruction of Israel. Speaking at a conference in Sderot, he said: “Without elaborating, we were exposed to this plan during the war – Iran is striving to achieve a nuclear defense umbrella that will provide it immunity to carry out a conventional destruction plan of the state of Israel – a combination of massive fire with a physical ground occupation.” In other words, Iran wants to achieve nuclear power to ensure its survival before carrying out a conventional war against Israel without the risk of being attacked in kind. The war would involve the launching of tens of thousands of rockets, missiles, and drones from Iran and its proxies, followed by coordinated ground invasions from multiple fronts, including from Palestinian groups within Israel. Smotrich said that Israel must neutralize Iran’s proxies. “This war should end when Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israeli citizens for many, many years to come. The first step is to finish the work in Gaza and convey the message to everyone, we will finish the same work in the north – we must end the war when we have neutralized the proxies of Gaza and Hezbollah.” “The Iranians are building on what they see as our internal social weakness. They are hugely mistaken. There is no major division today, only on the edges. Massive media coverage of all 15 old people who block highways – the absolute majority of Am Yisrael is united and loving.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)