From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 30, 2024
Smotrich defends outpost legalization, says Palestinian state an existential threat to Israel
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"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich defends the government’s decision to legalize several West Bank outposts and impose a series of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, saying that he is acting to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, which would pose “an immediate, existential danger to the State of Israel.”
Speaking at a conference co-sponsored by the national-religious Makor Rishon newspaper, the hard-right minister states that Iran seeks to use a nuclear umbrella as cover for more conventional military attacks on Israel using proxies firing tens of thousands of missiles.
“The Iranian regime has an orderly plan for the conventional destruction of the State of Israel,” he says, asserting that a Palestinian state in the West Bank would “multiply Gaza twenty times and place it in an area that topographically and geographically dominates the entire State of Israel.”
“And unfortunately and absurdly, even today, after October 7 and after the Iranian plan is known, there are those who strive for this collective suicide with all their might,” he says, complaining about left-wing and media criticism of the cabinet’s decision to take steps against Ramallah.
“The Arabs of the West Bank can, God forbid, turn Kfar Saba into Kfar Aza, Ra’anana into Be’eri, Netanya into Nahal Oz and Tel Aviv into Sderot within hours,” he continues, slamming politicians like Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot who he claims are pushing for the return of the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip.
He also congratulates Republican candidate Donald Trump for coming out against a Palestinian state during last week’s US presidential debate.
Israelis must “free ourselves from the messianic thinking that characterized the left and the Israeli security establishment over the last decades since Oslo,” he insists, calling “toppling the regime in Iran” a “primary goal” and accusing Tehran of seeking to use Arab Israelis to threaten the country from within.
