Posted on 08/10/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) on Saturday responded to White House spokesman John Kirby's accusation that Smotrich's view would "sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, his own country, and American hostages as well."
Responding to these accusations, Smotrich said, "I respect the position of the US and thank it for its support of Israel in the face of regional threats, but I expect it to respect Israeli democracy and the position of Israel's citizens and politicians with regards to decisions which influence the State's security."
"Just as the US would reject international pressure to reach a deal which involves surrendering to Al Qaeda and bin Laden, so, too, Israel will not surrender to international pressure which would lead to harming Israel's security."
"An agreement of surrender to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, which abandons most of the hostages to death, which releases mass murderers, which returns terrorists to northern Gaza, which abandons the border and allows Hamas to smuggle weapons and rebuild its power in order to attack Israel once more, as an arm of Iran - is bad for Israel and endangers its security, and we will oppose it with all our might. No criticism and no attack will distract us from the goal."
Biden recently indicated that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to the outline and reiterated his determination to implement the proposal, even though Hamas rejected the Biden outline shortly after he presented it.
Hamas recently added an additional condition for a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal, demanding that archterrorist Marwan Barghouti be released in the first stage of any deal implemented.