In an interview Monday morning on Galei Tzahal radio discussing the current wave of terror, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called out the United States for its recent criticisms against how Israel is attempting to defend itself from Arab terrorism. Israel is currently facing a wave of Arab terror attacks at a level that it hasn’t seen in years. The attacks have left dozens of Israeli citizens injured and dead. But the Biden administration has repeatedly criticized Israeli ministers who call for a stronger response to the terror attacks.
Smotrich said “There is no country more ethical than Israel, and there is no army more ethical than the IDF.”
Smotrich continued, “There is no nation that has fought an existential battle for its survival in the face of murderous terrorism for decades in a cleaner and more careful way than the Jewish people. Everyone who attacks us from around the world is a hypocrite. I am not even talking about the Americans and how they acted in Afghanistan and Iraq. They will not preach to us about human rights, not to the IDF, nor to us on the government level. There is no greater hypocrisy than this.”
Smotrich’s statements come on the footsteps of the statement of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who also recently returned fire at the United States when they condemned and criticized Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir said that Arabs rights to unhindered freedom of movement (referring to security checkpoints) does not supersede the rights of Jews to drive down a road without being murdered by Arab terrorists. The US called his statements racist.
“Sorry Mohammad,” Ben Gvir said to Arab-Israeli journalist Mohammad Magadli. “That’s the reality; that’s the truth. My right to life precedes the right to movement.”
The State Department criticized Minister Ben-Gvir, “We condemn all racist rhetoric as such messages are particularly damaging when amplified by those in leadership positions . . . [such remarks] are incongruent with advancing respect for human rights for all.”
Also in the interview, Smotrich also made it clear that there would be no concessions to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for normalization with Saudi Arabia, which is what the United States is trying to force into the peace equation. Smotrich said the Saudis will gain tremendously if they make peace with Israel, and they know it.
