From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
At Mar-a-Lago event, Religious Zionism MK urges Trump to reject deal that his own envoy is working to finalize
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Religious Zionism lawmaker Ohad Tal calls on US President-elect Donald Trump to oppose the hostage deal that his own envoy Steve Witkoff is currently working to finalize in Doha along with US President Joe Biden’s top aide Brett McGurk.
“The current deal, which was pushed by the Biden administration, is a horrible deal that will roll back all of Israel’s achievements of the past year,” he says at a prayer breakfast at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Tal says that Trump, “more than any other leader in the world,” knows how “to differentiate between good and evil and I call on you from here from this important podium not to support a deal that will leave this total evil of Hamas in power; not to support a deal that will leave back the vast majority of the hostages.”
Calling Trump’s recent electoral win a “spiritual victory for the values we all treasure,” Tal criticizes “wokeism” and says that the incoming administration provides “an opportunity to apply full Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, the heart of our ancestral homeland.”
A last-minute attempt in Mar a Lago to convince Trump not to support the hostage agreement that is about to be signed. Knesset member @MKOhadTal chairman of the “Religious Zionist” faction said at a conference held at this time in Mar-a-Lago that "we want a deal that will return… pic.twitter.com/fXO39p0MlF
— Ariel Kahana אריאל כהנא (@arik3000) January 14, 2025
