At an economic forum held in Eilat, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich disclosed the impact that the Biden administration’s arms embargo had on Israel’s military operations in 2024.
“Aside from the immense joy and excitement we have over the return of each and every hostage, this deal is bad. The release of hundreds of murderous terrorists who, according to all statistics, are determined to return to murdering Jews, the rehabilitation of the Hamas leadership in Israel and abroad, the exit from the Netzarim Corridor. It should be said that because of the American embargo that did not give us bomb kits, we had to take mechanical kits from the Yom Kippur War and some of them did not explode and now Hamas is using them. But the dangerous thing about the deal is the message that whoever wants to defeat the State of Israel and bring it to its knees only needs to kidnap Jews,” said Smotrich.
He stressed that Israel must now take decisive action to crush Hamas. “There have already been many reckless deals in which we released terrorists and then there was a river of blood that we paid for it. But in phase two there is a red line that has not yet been crossed and must not be crossed – that the political arrangements are made with a gun to the hostages’ heads. After all, phase two is a declaration of the end of the war and there has never been a situation in which a political arrangement is positioned as surrender to pressure regarding the hostages.”
“If, God forbid, we do this, the next stage will be a Palestinian state and the expulsion of Jews from Judea and Samaria, because otherwise we will not get the hostages. There will be a huge and very emotional campaign, very painful and very real – and all of it is true, but the State of Israel cannot agree to do this. The only way to correct the dangerous message of the deal is to make sure that we return to fighting and Hamas is completely destroyed. That way, the message will be that whoever kidnaps Jews is destroyed, even if he had tactical achievements along the way, because our Jewish heart could not stand by. That is the only reason we stayed in the government, and I am clear-headed on this matter,” he emphasized.
Discussing broader political ramifications, Smotrich remarked, “Trump will never sign a surrender to Hamas, he sees it as a humiliation for himself. It is possible that if we surrender, he will say, ‘You are stupid,’ but he himself will not sign and certainly will not give guarantees for it. If the US gives guarantees to Qatar and Egypt, the US will not be able to violate them because there is an A and B of credibility between countries. The US knows how to back us up in the moves we want under the current administration, and there are things it will not do.”
Additionally, Smotrich laid out his strategy for securing the release of the remaining hostages. “On the day we return to fighting, and I say with responsibility that we will return to fighting – much faster, stronger, deadlier and completely different than before – we need to apply sovereignty to 10% of the northern border and establish several settlement nuclei there. After that, we need to tell Hamas every 48 hours that the hostages are not returned, we will apply sovereignty to another 5% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. I talked about it with Netanyahu more than once and he said it in his own voice on one occasion.”
{Matzav.com}