Smotrich: War Cabinet Should Be Expanded

During the meeting of the Religious Zionism party’s Knesset faction today (Monday), Faction Chairman and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich said that the serious error of introducing fuel into the Gaza Strip required an expansion of the war cabinet.

Smotrich spoke of visiting the family of Yossi Hershkovitz ob”m, who fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip. “His family asked me to deliver two messages. One is to continue the unity we see since the war, and the second thing is that the sacrifice the family paid not be in vain, and that the IDF go all the way without stopping, without folding, and without surrendering, and entirely destroy Hamas.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, “the decision to allow the introduction of fuel into the Gaza Strip is a serious error. I opposed it at the cabinet meeting and I think the way to win the war is to defeat the Hamas state in Gaza and to do that we need to collapse the state system in Gaza and not allow anything which could help Hamas continue to fight and harm our soldiers and citizens. I will continue to oppose any similar move.”

According to him, “this serious error requires the expansion of the war cabinet. Opinions which have not yet been heard have to be heard round the war cabinet table. Directions and steps not considered thus far and thought that challenges the preconception which many good people held to, the preconception which to a great degree brought us to the situation we are in today.”

“We need to put people round the table where decisions are made who cried out for years against the preconception, who demanded the elimination of Hamas including the occupation of the Gaza Strip to remove the threat to the State of Israel.”