Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that Israel currently has no interest in joining the military campaign against Iran, arguing that the present arrangement, in which the fighting remains contained between the United States and Iran, serves Israel best.
Speaking at the Gush Katif Heritage Center's national responsibility conference, Smotrich told interviewer Shirit Avitan Cohen that Israel's overarching goal in the campaign, one not necessarily shared with Washington, is to weaken and ultimately topple the Iranian regime. He said Israel cannot accept the continued existence of a regime openly committed to its destruction, and argued that the most effective route to bringing it down right now runs through crushing Iran economically rather than militarily.
Smotrich said the current standoff benefits Israel and that there is no reason to push into the conflict directly, while stressing that the IDF remains fully prepared for any scenario. He said Israeli forces are on alert and that any Iranian strike on Israel would meet an extremely powerful and determined response. He added that Israel is only a political decision away from sending its air force on an unrestricted, full freedom of action operation over Iranian skies.
Turning to the military's leadership, Smotrich addressed sharp criticism of IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir recently voiced by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri in an interview with Kikar HaShabbat. Without naming Deri directly, Smotrich said he strongly objects to hostile remarks made against the chief of staff in recent days, including by people he described as within his own political camp, and offered thanks to Zamir along with IDF commanders, combat troops, pilots, and intelligence personnel.
On the enlistment law, Smotrich acknowledged the issue touches a genuine point of pain and said Haredi enlistment cannot be achieved by force, arguing that mass arrests only push Jews into physical confrontations on the roads. He said Israel came close to a historic breakthrough on the draft law, but purists who insisted on all or nothing blocked its passage rather than accepting a partial step forward. He said seeing Haredi lawmakers vote in favor of an enlistment law would fundamentally change the reality on the ground.
He also pushed back on the argument that the burden on reservists stems from Haredi non-enlistment, calling that claim entirely false and pointing out that more than 100,000 reservists who have already served are not being successfully returned to reserve duty by the army itself.
