At meeting, US Treasury chief urges Smotrich to ‘fully embrace’ Trump’s Gaza plan

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held a rare meeting with a senior US official on Wednesday in Washington where Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used the opportunity to urge the far-right minister to “fully embrace” US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war, according to a readout from the US Treasury Department.

The decision by Bessent’s office to highlight its call for Smotrich to embrace the Trump plan in its two-sentence readout points to Washington’s dissatisfaction with the Israeli finance minister’s opposition to the US effort.

Smotrich was one of several far-right ministers who voted against authorizing the first phase of Trump’s plan, which incudes a ceasefire, a limited Israeli pullback from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner swap.

He has expressed his opposition to releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages while also arguing that the deal leaves Hamas in power. He called for resuming the war following a deadly attack on Israeli troops in Gaza on Sunday, tweeting, “War!”

The IDF responded with a series of airstrikes against what it said were Hamas targets before announcing the resumption of its adherence to the US-brokered ceasefire several hours after Smotrich’s tweet.

Bessent’s office says he also used the Monday meeting with Smotrich to “reaffirm the strong ties between the United States and Israel.” Bessent “also underscored the historic return of the hostages, and noted the great potential for expansion of the Abraham Accords,” the US readout says.