Posted on 06/04/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Sources in Israel's defense echelon slammed Finance MInister Bezalel Smotrich for toppling the Palestinian Authority, noting that he is leading a process which will defund it.
Speaking with Ynet, the security sources said that Smotrich's economic sanctions mainly hurt Palestinian Authority officials and security personnel, who the sources claim prevent terror attacks. This is due in large part to the Palestinian Authority's decision to prioritize terrorists' salaries over those of its employees.
"There is an Israeli interest in preserving the moderates and preventing the extremists from taking control of the area," they claimed.
Smotrich responded: "Those 'security sources,' who have done everything they can for years to prevent the IDF from entering Gaza and destroying Hamas, who are responsible for the most horrific military failure that happened to the Jewish nation since the Holocaust, and who have been lackadaisical about managing the war since then, are threatening anyone who dares to challenge their atrophied thinking and to think outside of the box."
"This is the entire concept. You have to be a huge defeatist to ask to support the Palestinian Authority, which supports terror and wages diplomatic and legal warfare against Israel and aims for the issue of arrest warrants against its Prime Minister and Defense Minister - just like those who wanted to evacuate Gush Katif, retreat from Lebanon, and advance the creation of a terror state in the heart of Israel."
Smotrich added, "Defeatism which cost us in too many lives, 'sacrifices of peace,' and October 7, were not enough for them to wake up, and they continue and even now are trying to sell us that we can't win and that 'there is no military solution to terror.'"
"It does not matter how many articles they have initiated, I will never accept their desire to create a Palestinian terror state which will threaten the security of the entire State of Israel, and I will do everything to prevent it. With a command echelon who grew up on the knees of Oslo [Accords] and simply refuses to wake up, we can never win. It's time for a change."