From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 9, 2024
Smotrich: Assad’s fall means we should fully topple Hamas too, occupy and settle Gaza
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"
This weekend’s sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria marks a “dramatic change” in the Middle East, with “enemies that seemed threatening and invincible to us falling and crashing thanks to the power of the IDF and the transition from containment and defense to initiative and attack,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich argues.
“We are still in the middle of the campaign, but now is the time to complete the task and take advantage of the disintegration of the axis of evil to powerfully strike Iran, which is the head of the snake, before it has time to recover from the series of blows we have inflicted on it and its arms,” the far right politician tells reporters in the Knesset ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting.
Meanwhile, in the south, “we must also complete the task of occupying Gaza and destroying Hamas in order to return all the hostages and ensure that it no longer poses a threat to Israel,” he adds.
“The time has come to occupy the territory and take civilian control of Gaza from Hamas, thereby cutting it off from its source of oxygen that still keeps it alive. We have now seen in Syria how the regime’s leaders flee like mice as soon as they realize that they have lost power and control over the citizens. We can do it in Gaza too,” he says.
“Instead of talking about partial deals that will leave behind a large part of the hostages… we need to step on the gas pedal, stop being afraid of our own shadow, and do what is required.”
Turning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, Smotrich asserts that requiring him to begin testifying tomorrow “seriously harms national interests.”
Whoever ignores warnings about this “may be found responsible for security failures and history will judge them for it,” Smotrich states.
As a member of the security cabinet, he is exposed to all sorts of information, both public and confidential, Smotrich says, and that is why he wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and judiciary director Judge Tzachi Uziel to request that Netanyahu’s testimony be delayed.
“The fact that the prime minister is required to appear in court at such a critical time is nothing less than delusional and constitutes a serious violation of national interests,” he states — citing the letter he and other members of the security cabinet sent to Baharav-Miara and Uziel this morning.
Smotrich says that he hopes that in “the moment of truth,” the attorney general and the court will reverse course “and allow the prime minister to manage the affairs of the war.”
