Bezalel Smotrich says only a permanent presence in the Gaza Strip would stop the rockets in Israel’s south. Hezbollah, he said, should be presented with an ultimatum – withdraw from the border or face Israeli incursion
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday that the Israeli army should create a security zone in southern Lebanon should Hezbollah not heed an Israeli request to withdraw from the border area. He also called on the security cabinet to order a permanent military presence “in all of the Gaza Strip.”
While on a visit to Israel’s north, the far-right leader of the Religious Zionism party said that “the war must end with Hezbollah’s total military defeat. It must be presented with an ultimatum to stop firing and withdraw its forces… and if [Hezbollah] doesn’t fully comply – the Israeli army must launch a defensive attack … deep in Lebanese territory, including a ground incursion and an Israeli military takeover of the southern Lebanon area.”
According to Smotrich, the war broke out because of the “concept whereby you can forgo military control on the ground, run behind fences and walls, and make do with agreements that are not worth the paper they were written on.” He said the decision by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000 was a mistake: “We see the result today, in the fact that the security zone has moved from south Lebanon into Israel,” he said, adding that “we’ve been paying a bloody price” for these “failures.”
Regarding Gaza, Smotrich said that the IDF must have a permanent military presence in the Strip. Military outposts, he added, should be erected “in the north, center and south of the Gaza Strip, to prevent a situation in which Hamas rebuilds its military infrastructure and [reasserts] civilian control.”
Smotrich also said he agreed with war cabinet member Benny Gantz, who warned on Saturday that the Gaza war is dragging on without achieving the goals set by the Israeli government. But contrary to Gantz – who demanded from Netanyahu a post-war Gaza plan by June 8 – Smotrich hinted that it is the top brass who is to blame. For months, he said, Gantz and others in the cabinet have been working to end the war, “to make reckless concessions, to surrender to Hamas, to establish a Palestinian state and to surrender to Hezbollah.”
According to the finance minister, the government intends to approve an economic assistance plan for residents of the north this week – seven months since the start of the war. “Besides that,” he added. “The way to return residents back home in the north is through defeating Hezbollah with a lethal attack.”
His comments come after Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz demanded on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to an agreed vision for the Gaza conflict that would include stipulating who might rule the territory after the war with Hamas.
Gantz told a press conference he wanted the war cabinet to form a six-point plan by June 8. If his expectations are not met, he said, he will withdraw his centrist party from the conservative premier’s broadened emergency coalition.
Gantz, a retired top Israeli general who opinion polls show is Netanyahu’s most formidable political rival, gave no date for the prospective walkout but his challenge could increase strains on an increasingly unwieldy wartime government.
Gantz came after Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant demanded clarity on post-war plans and for PM Netanyahu to forswear any military reoccupation of Gaza
Gantz said his proposed six-point plan would include bringing a temporary U.S.-European-Arab-Palestinian system of civil administration for Gaza while Israel retains security control..
It would also institute equitable national service for all Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox Jews, who are now exempted from the military draft and have two parties in Netanyahu’s coalition determined to preserve the waiver.
Gantz leads Netanyahu for PM in new poll
In the survey, 523 respondents participated, constituting a representative sample of the adult population in the State of Israel, aged 18 and over, both Jews and Arabs, Jerusalem Post reported on Saturday. The maximum sampling error in the survey is 4.4%, according to the report.
The results of the survey, published by Maariv, show Benny Gantz leading Benjamin Netanyahu for the prime ministership with 45% support compared to 35%,
HAARETZ/ YL/ NEWS AGENCIES
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