Ben-Gvir is feeling more empowered by the day. Unhinged, due to the growing popularity of his far-right party, he is now attacking Washington, the very country that made genocide possible in Gaza.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told the Wall Street Journal that he would oppose any deal with Hamas and that Israel would get more support if Trump was in power.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Ben-Gvir as saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu “is at a crossroads,” and that “he has to choose in what direction he’ll go.”
“In his first interview with a foreign news organization since joining the government, Ben-Gvir warned that he would oppose any deal with Hamas that would free thousands of Palestinians held for terrorism or end the war before Hamas was fully defeated,” the WSJ reported. Israel considers any form of Palestinian Resistance to the Israeli occupation a form of terrorism.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, wants to resettle Gaza and get Palestinians to leave. He also can topple Israel’s government. https://t.co/h5TmG8QvDO https://t.co/h5TmG8QvDO
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 4, 2024
The far-right Israeli minister also criticized US President Joe Biden, saying that “instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas”.
Ben-Gvir added that “if Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
Ben-Gvir also reiterated his political vision for Gaza. “Ben-Gvir laid out his own plan for Gaza, which would repopulate the devastated coastal strip with Israeli settlements while Palestinians would be offered financial incentives to leave” according to the WSJ.
The American newspaper quoted the Israeli minister as saying that his plan is to “encourage Gazans to voluntarily emigrate to places around the world” by offering them cash incentives, calling it “the real humanitarian” thing to do.
Israeli Criticism
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and War Council Minister Benny Gantz slammed Ben-Gvir’s criticism of Biden, Israeli media reported.
“The interview Ben Gvir gave to the Wall Street Journal is direct damage to Israel’s international standing, direct damage to the war effort, harms the security of Israel and mostly proves that he doesn’t understand anything in foreign diplomacy,” Lapid wrote on X, adding that “Netanyahu has no control over the extremists in his government.”
Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Merav Michaeli, and other Israeli politicians blasted Itamar Ben-Gvir's comment to The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that Donald Trump would have been better for Israel in its current war against Hamas than Joe Biden.https://t.co/521RNsjM0X
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) February 4, 2024
Gantz also took on X to write that “disagreements are permissible, even with our biggest and most important ally, but it should come in the relevant forums and not in irresponsible comments in the media, which harm the strategic interests of the State of Israel, the security of the country and the war efforts at this time.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
