Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke a short while ago (Monday) at the beginning of the meeting of the Religious Zionist faction in the Knesset, which takes place every Monday.
At first, he said: "There is no Jew who is not happy to see our brothers and sisters return home. There is no Jew who does not feel deep sorrow, concern and anger at their situation and the harsh and shocking conditions in which they were held in the Hamas tunnels and in which some of our brothers are still held. It wouls have been the easiest thing for us to join the choir and connect to the human and Jewish emotion that is so natural and to support the deal. We could have been the darling of the families and received a warm media hug if we had only joined the herd."
"But," the minister explained, "my responsibility as a leader and as a public emissary is for the State of Israel, its future and its security, and this obliges me to oppose the abandonment of millions of citizens of the State of Israel and of Jews around the world who will pay the heavy and terrible price of continuing the deal. I am under fire for my stance against the deal, including painful and harsh statements from the families of the hostages and others. But I am steadfast in my opposition out of national responsibility."
"History," the minister added, "will not forgive short-sighted and irresponsible politicians who have been cooperating with Hamas propaganda for many months and are trying to push Israel to surrender and lose the war. Politicians who want to turn this war instead of victory into "another round" followed by the next massacre, and the next kidnappers and the next round, and so on. We will not give in to this dangerous populism in any way."
While speaking Smotrich was confronted by former hostage Ofer Calderon's nephew, who held up a photo of Ofer back together with his family and said: "This is the photo that you tried to prevent being taken! How are we different from the Nazis on the other side of the fence if we sacrifice our brothers and sisters."
