Chairman of the National Security Committee MK Tzvika Foghel (Fogel) of the Otzma Yehudit party on Sunday told Reshet Bet Radio that in Israel “we need to conclude the war with the entire northern Gaza Strip settled by Jews.” According to Foghel, Hamas “will pay the price of October 7 in one way only – they will not have land there.” He added that regarding Gaza civilians “I encourage voluntary immigration, whoever wants it will receive a grant from me.”
Foghel’s interview followed a statement by the Commander of the 82nd Armored Battalion in the 7th Brigade, Lt. Col. Ofir Caspi, who last week told reporters in Gaza, “The IDF needs to hold onto the territory, I think that if the settlements return here – we will have won. If we kill Sinwar we will not destroy Hamas, someone else will come. The solution is to return here, like the settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
Needless to say, this did not go over well with the IDF brass. He was summoned for an inquiry with the division commander and was reprimanded by the command for his statements. On Friday, Caspi retracted his statement and apologized. His bosses stated, “He understood his deviation from the norm and the decorum expected of him as an officer wearing a uniform.”
Otzma Yehudit condemned the IDF’s move, saying, “When senior officials in the security establishment stated that the introduction of workers and the containment of rocket fire from Gaza were important for security – this was considered a legitimate security assessment. When the 82nd Battalion’s commander, Lt. Col. Ofir Caspi, who has been fighting in Gaza for several months, says that the security solution in Gaza is Jewish settlement – he Receives a reprimand. This is what the attempt to create uniform thinking looks like while silencing excellent officers who are not captives of the conceptzia.
“Lt. Col. Caspi deserves full backing and great appreciation for his performance in the war and for expressing his professional position – this is exactly what is expected of an IDF officer.”
MK Foghel also told Reshet Bet that in his opinion it should be possible to “release thousands of prisoners tomorrow morning,” but only with the knowledge that all the hostages will be released, and the war to destroy Hamas will continue.
“Their ideology may remain alive, but there won’t be anyone to put it into practice,” Foghel said. He added, “We have a tendency to compromise with the Americans, but the negotiations are not conducted with them – but with rather scoundrels who all they want is to release as many terrorists as possible.”
Vogel stressed the importance of Israel becoming less dependent on other countries in the conduct of the war: “We need to develop the Israeli military industry, to depend only on ourselves. It cannot be that we are constantly dependent on others and are unable to take two steps to care for our future because without some Biden getting in the way.”
Foghel, 68, commanded an artillery battery during the 1982 Lebanon War and led the 334th Artillery Battalion during Operation Accountability in 1993 while serving as a colonel in the Northern Command. His unit encouraged a flow of refugees from southern Lebanon to Beirut to pressure the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel. In the 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath, Foghel commanded the 282nd Artillery Brigade.
In 2005, Foghel approached then-Southern Command Commander Yoav Gallant to appoint artillery coordinators in all the IDF divisions and store all the weapons except small arms in one place. Gallant agreed and Foghel re-enlisted to help set up his program. In 2008, he was appointed Artillery Coordinator for the Southern Command. During Operation Cast Lead, 2008–2009, Foghel coordinated and oversaw all the Southern Command bombardments of the Gaza Strip.
In two separate interviews, Foghel confirmed that to protect Israeli soldiers, innocent Arabs sometimes had to die, and that IDF snipers along the Gaza border were authorized to kill Arabs who stormed the fence, including teenagers.
His last interview to that effect was in 2018. It appears that when he left the army, those wise policies left with him.
