Zvi Sukkot Blasts IDF Chief, Haredi Draft Standoff, and Einav Zangauker

Knesset Member Tzvi Sukkot, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's subcommittee, sat down for a wide-ranging and unsparing interview Thursday, taking aim at the IDF chief of staff, Haredi political parties, the Oslo Accords, and a prominent hostage family member turned political candidate.

"Our public is at a breaking point"

Sukkot, who grew up in Haredi institutions before moving into Religious Zionist circles, opened with a personal account of what the war has done to families around him. "My brother-in-law has been in Lebanon for a month, my brother is in the south, my advisers are in reserves. People are divorcing, losing their businesses, losing their sanity," he said. "In this situation, we simply must have new soldiers. There is no other way."

But he drew a firm line against scenes of yeshiva students being dragged into military vehicles. His proposed path forward is full adoption of the recommendations of the Shkedy Committee, which would create tailored frameworks and meaningful incentives for Haredi enlistment. The obstacle, he argued, is internal. "Unfortunately, the Haredi parties are currently blocking this."

"The chief of staff is damaging trust"

Despite his call for more soldiers, Sukkot directed sharp criticism at IDF leadership over the recent suspension of an entire battalion over what he called a "Messiah patch" worn by soldiers. "I was fully partner to that criticism. I got 30 MKs to sign against this delusional decision by the chief of staff. To pull a battalion from operations over such nonsense during a war? That is a complete loss of trust. We need fighters, not thought police."

"Rabin had no moral authority"

Sukkot also addressed his controversial visit to Solomon's Pools near Bethlehem, where he was photographed waving an Israeli flag. The ancient reservoir complex, built during the Second Temple period to supply water to Jerusalem and the Temple, was transferred to the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords. "The Rabin government had no moral authority to hand that place to the arch-murderer Arafat," he said. "That is the water source of the Temple. We will correct the law and return there permanently."

"There is no such thing as Jewish terrorism"

On settler violence, Sukkot pushed back hard against the prevailing media narrative, claiming violence statistics in Judea and Samaria are far lower than those in Tel Aviv, and framing international criticism as a coordinated campaign against the legitimacy of Israeli settlement. "There is nationalist criminality that needs to be dealt with," he said, "but to call it terrorism? Arab terrorist organizations want to destroy the state. On the Jewish side there is nothing that resembles that."

The attack on Einav Zangauker

The interview's sharpest moment came when Sukkot turned on Einav Zangauker, the hostage family activist set to join Yair Golan's Democrats party. "There is a profound difference between Zvika Mor and Einav Zangauker. Zangauker is a politician who used her pain to try to lead Israel toward complete surrender to Hamas. She put pressure on the government instead of on the enemy. She fits Yair Golan like a glove. Both of them are prepared to capitulate to every Hamas demand, even at the price of losing the war."

He closed with a direct appeal to voters: "Don't give them power. The public is smart enough to tell the difference between those who fight for victory and those prepared to pay any price, including defeat."