Smotrich: Hostage families’ pain must not ‘overcome reason,’ Israelis are ‘brainwashed’ into wanting deal

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claims that the Israeli public has been “brainwashed” into supporting the ceasefire and hostage deal, and warns that continuing on to the second phase of the agreement will send the country down a “slippery and dangerous slope.”

In a lengthy statement on X, the hard-right Religious Zionism head pictures an imagined future in which the current hostage deal emboldens Hamas to “abduct more Israelis, and demand an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, the evacuation of the settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state in exchange for their release.”

Then, he continues, Iran could “kidnap several Jewish families traveling around the world, transfer them to its territory and demand the lifting of economic sanctions against it, an Israeli commitment not to act against its nuclear facilities and a fast track to a bomb.”

“You convince yourself that this is impossible and that in the face of such demands, there is no doubt that we would refuse to surrender,” Smotrich says. “What is your basis for saying that? What is the difference between that and between the second phase of the deal that has suddenly become so trivial and necessary?!”

He claims that the “reckless media in Israel will brainwash you, without you even realizing, just as it has been doing for over a year.”

“It will put yellow symbols and flags in the background of every program and every interviewee,” he claims, referring to the yellow ribbon that has become synonymous with the plight of the hostages. “It will deny, mock and completely delegitimize those who seek to illustrate the costs of the deal and oppose it.”

Acknowledging momentarily, the “heartbreaking pain” of the families of the hostages, Smotrich declares that “a responsible state that desires life is not run through their lens, and cannot let emotion and pain overcome reason and endanger its existence and the future of all its citizens.”

He declares that Religious Zionism will oppose any and all attempts to proceed to the second stage of the agreement, and warns Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that anyone who would agree to the demands of Hamas “does not deserve to be a leader.”