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No peace at any price

Smotrich draws red line: Israel  won’t commit suicide for Saudi Agreement   

Finance minister insists peace must be on Israel’s terms - not at any cost.

Bezalel Smortich background
Photo : Yonatan Sindel Flash90

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated on Monday that any normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia must be built on the principle of “peace for peace”, not on the creation of what he called a Palestinian “terror state.”

Speaking during his Religious Zionism Party’s weekly faction meeting in Jerusalem, Smotrich told JNS that while normalization with Saudi Arabia is desirable, it must not come at the expense of Israel’s security.

“We think normalization is a good thing and in our mutual interest, especially for the Saudis,” Smotrich said. “The Middle East is divided into the Iranian axis of evil and its proxies, and the moderate axis that sides with the West, the U.S., and the values of liberty, freedom, and security.”

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Smotrich believes this regional dynamic offers enormous potential. “If we continue to subdue evil, which we’ve been doing for a year and a half, we can build a different kind of Middle East, based on real peace and shared values,” he said.

But the minister drew a hard line regarding Palestinian statehood. “Israel will not even consider giving in to Saudi demands for a pathway to a Palestinian state. That will never happen. No way,” he stated firmly.

Smotrich warned that a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would become “a huge terrorist state,like Gaza, but twenty times worse, positioned on terrain that dominates the entire State of Israel.”

Addressing reports that the U.S. might support Saudi Arabia’s development of a civil nuclear program as part of a normalization deal, Smotrich expressed deep concern. “We don’t think it’s right for the Saudis to have nuclear capabilities,” he said.

Still, Smotrich was not entirely dismissive of a potential agreement. “If the Saudis want peace for peace, with a maximized win-win for everyone, we’re very happy about that. But if they’re asking us to commit suicide in the process,then no thanks.”

Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking from Berlin, struck a more hopeful tone. “There is nothing I want more than to shake the hand of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” Herzog said, calling the potential deal “a rapprochement between Jew and Muslim.”

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