Smotrich: This is our condition for entering the next government

During the security conference of Channel 14, the Minister of Finance and Minister in the Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, outlined today, Tuesday, the goals that will be set for the next government, with the unequivocal demand to address the root of the security threat in Judea and Samaria and in the Arab society at the center of the interview with Shimon Riklin.

Smotrich sharply criticized the approaches warning against aggressive activity in Judea and Samaria for fear of escalation, and compared them to the failures of October 6. According to him, the concept of "conflagration" voiced by various parties is a deep conceptual error that prevents real treatment of terrorism.

"I think that in Judea and Samaria we have not yet recovered from the conception to a very large extent. And you heard – by the way, it is like you heard yesterday Eisenkot talking about the fact that there might be a conflagration in Judea and Samaria and then it is necessary to transfer forces from Gaza and Lebanon. These are exactly the talks of October 6, that we are afraid to confront, to fight terrorism aggressively and to dismantle it."

Despite the criticism, the minister expressed satisfaction with the recent instructions of the IDF and the security establishment: "I was very happy with the statement of the Minister of Defense with you today, who gave an instruction to the IDF to prepare for the conquest of another Palestinian camp, and after it another one and another one and another one. We must dismantle the nests of terror, collect the weapons – and I remind, again, to those who do not remember, in the cursed Oslo it was spoken about only 12,000 policemen with machine guns, and we reached tens of thousands with weapons."

When asked if this is a rigid demand ahead of the formation of the next government, Smotrich clarified that this constitutes a binding practical condition that includes a defined work plan. "It is not a question of a condition, it is a demand that I put with a set of tools that I will demand, just as I took the revolution in Judea and Samaria now and did it in a very systematic and thorough way. I want to do the same thing now: to go through settlement by settlement, village by village, house by house, to collect the weapons. This is the greatest threat to the national security of the State of Israel."

In response to a question about the threats crossing the Green Line, Smotrich emphasized that the situation in the Arab society constitutes an equally serious existential danger, requiring treatment without any geographical distinction: "Volumes of hundreds of thousands of weapons with magazines, with explosive blocks, with LAW missiles, with grenades – this is the greatest threat to the national security of the State of Israel, and I, with your permission, do not recognize a Green Line in this context."