Otzma Yehudit MK to skip Trump’s speech, assailing his ‘shameful agreement’ on Gaza

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son-Har Melech joins at least two other lawmakers in announcing she will boycott US President Donald Trump’s speech at the Knesset tomorrow.

“President Trump presented the current deal as a peace agreement,” she writes on X. “It is not. It is a shameful agreement. The thing missing from it the most is peace and security. Israel’s security suffered a hard blow when it was signed. We are already seeing Hamas reorganizing in Gaza, planning to regain control of the Strip the moment our forces withdraw.”

Arguing that the next round of fighting “is only a matter of time,” Son-Har Melech says she is “unable and not interested in joining the applause — not for the US president who is selling the people of Israel an illusion of peace and security, and not for the right wing which is idealizing this agreement as if it’s an achievement.”

She argues that the deal is “full of holes,” since it does not say what happens if Hamas violates its terms, gives Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey a role in postwar Gaza, and does not rule out involvement by the Palestinian Authirity. She says she understands those who say the deal is a lesser evil, but not those who refer to it as a good deal.

She explains, however, that her party will stay in the government for now, and will stay if it is demonstrated that Hamas disarms and Israel is given freedom to act against threats and violations.

Earlier, Likud MK Amit Halevi and Noam Party head Avi Maoz similarly said they would skip Trump’s speech, for similar reasons.