Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced Saturday that he no longer believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to do what it takes to win the war in Gaza, calling the security cabinet’s approval on Thursday of a plan to conquer Gaza City a half-measure.
While his public message was strongly worded, Smotrich didn’t outright threaten to quit the government, something he has long been reportedly considering and which he has said several times in the past he would do if he felt the war wasn’t going in his preferred direction.
In a video message, Smotrich said he had “worked intensively” with Netanyahu in recent weeks to formulate a new plan for “victory in Gaza,” which would consist of a combination of military and political moves intended to destroy Hamas’s military and civil capabilities and force it to free the hostages. While it initially appeared that Netanyahu supported this plan, Smotrich said, “he made a U-turn.”
Instead, together with his cabinet, Netanyahu “succumbed to weakness, let emotion win over reason and decided to do more of the same again” and launch a military maneuver aimed not at complete victory, but only at pressuring Hamas to agree to a “partial hostage deal,” Smotrich alleged, adding that such an approach gives the terrorist group an out, with the opportunity to “recover and rearm.”
Arguing that this “is not how you win a war,” Smotrich insisted that “when faced with a push for a deal, the IDF will always move tepidly and work at half-speed,” adding that risking troops’ lives as well as international opprobrium in pursuit of such a strategy was an “immoral and illogical folly.”
While the finance minister said he had previously supported the prime minister for the sake of unity even when they disagreed, “Unfortunately, for the first time since the war began, I feel that I simply cannot stand behind this decision and support it. My conscience does not allow it.”
Smotrich added that he was previously able to set aside his reservations because he believed that “we were striving for a decisive victory,” but that now he has “lost faith that the prime minister is able and wants to lead the IDF to a decisive victory.”
Appealing directly to Netanyahu, Smotrich said it was “not too late” to change his mind, convene the cabinet and announce that “there will be no more partial deals” and that Israel was now aiming at a complete victory in which Hamas either surrenders and releases all the hostages all at once, or is completely defeated and destroyed.
This approach, he added, would include the “annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip and opening its gates to voluntary migration.”
Asked if Smotrich’s statement constituted a threat to bolt the coalition and what his Religious Zionism party will do if Netanyahu does not alter his approach, a spokesman for the minister did not immediately respond.
Overnight Thursday-Friday, the security cabinet approved a proposal by Netanyahu to take over the densely populated Gaza City, bucking warnings from the army that the operation risks the lives of the remaining hostages in addition to potentially sparking a humanitarian disaster.
Some speculated that talk of a larger-scale operation to conquer all of Gaza completely had been a pressure tactic aimed at coaxing Hamas to return to the negotiation table on Israel’s terms.
Both Smotrich and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the plan. Smotrich reportedly cited Netanyahu’s readiness to halt the Gaza City operation if Hamas met Israel’s conditions for a new deal as his reason, while Ben Gvir took issue with the proposal’s stipulation that aid would be provided to Palestinians who evacuate from Gaza City.
Netanyahu’s coalition is reliant on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who seek to occupy the Strip permanently in order to push Palestinians out of the enclave and re-establish Jewish settlements in their place.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir expressed firm opposition to the Gaza City proposal, citing the risk it poses to soldiers and the remaining hostages.
Hostage families are vehemently opposed to the plan approved by the government, fearing it will lead to their loved ones’ demise, and staged fiery protests in Tel Aviv on Thursday night and again on Saturday night. They were joined on both occasions by thousands of supporters who blocked roads and clashed with police who tried to clear them.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.