From the Liveblog of
Monday, February 10, 2025
Smotrich says while he’s ‘happy’ to see Gaza hostages returning, he still opposes moving to 2nd stage of deal
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"
Speaking ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that while “there is no Jew who is not happy to see our brothers and sisters return home,” he still opposes moving on to the next stage of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“The most popular and easiest thing for us would have been to join the chorus and connect with the natural human and Jewish emotion and support the deal,” Smotrich tells reporters. But he argues that his responsibility as a national leader “requires me to oppose the abandonment of millions of citizens in the State of Israel and Jews around the world who will pay the heavy and terrible price of continuing the deal.”
“I am taking fire for my stance against the deal, including painful and harsh statements from the families of the hostages and others. But I am firm in my opposition out of national responsibility,” he says.
“History will not forgive short-sighted and irresponsible politicians who have been cooperating with Hamas propaganda for many months and trying to push Israel into surrender and losing the war.”
Instead of continuing with the deal, “we need to take all the anger, rage and revenge and take it out on the murderers in Hamas. Not to do ‘more of the same thing’ again, but to go back and fight differently,” he insists.
Smotrich says Israel should completely halt “humanitarian aid to Hamas,” “permanently occupy territory” in Gaza, and encourage Palestinians to migrate from the Strip “in cooperation with President Trump, who understands well the root of the conflict and the only realistic solution.”
He calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the plan to the cabinet to prepare to resume fighting Hamas after the end of the ongoing first stage of the hostage-ceasefire deal that came into effect in January.
“This is the only realistic way to force Hamas to surrender, wave a white flag, and flee for its life in exchange for the release of all the hostages, down to the last one,” Smotrich insists.
Turning to the West Bank, Smotrich notes that the cabinet has added fighting terror in Judea and Samaria to the war’s goals following his party’s demand and says that this is intended to prevent an attack similar to October 7 in that region.
“The Arab residents of Judea and Samaria should know that if they continue with terrorism, their fate will be the same as the residents of Gaza,” he says.
On ultra-Orthodox conscription, Smotrich says that he will not agree to delay the approval of the 2025 state budget “for any other law that needs to be discussed separately.” Haredi parties have threatened to condition their support of the budget on the prior passage of a law largely exempting their community from military service.
“We have a responsibility to the state and the economy, and I am convinced that all of our partners understand this,” Smotrich says, inviting the public to review a budget document his office has released.
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