Cultural Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit), spoke about the possibility of reaching an outline agreement for the release of hostages in exchange for a complete ending of the war in Gaza.
"If the war stops, not only will there be no government, there will be no state. That is clear to everyone. If the war stops, it won’t be only from Gaza or the north, it will be everywhere. It's clear that we will leave the government if the war is stopped. What is the question at all? Even the Likud won't let it happen. I don't see it happening. I don’t see the war stopping. I don't think it's something realistic," said Minister Eliyahu in an interview with 103FM.
He added, "I voted against the previous deal, but I don't criticize those who voted for it. I'm just saying that there are prices, and the price that we are paying to this day is that we cannot stop the humanitarian aid. This whole situation is very complex, and today the price we are paying is that we cannot subdue Hamas."
Minister Eliyahu admitted that the goals of the war are far from being attained. "I am frustrated that we have not yet defeated Hamas, that humanitarian aid is being brought into Gaza. I am frustrated that the hostages have not yet returned to their homes, and we have not won the war. On the other hand, I am also very, very proud of our soldiers, of the fighting, of the stories of heroism that our nation is displaying. I feel more happy than frustrated. This situation hurts me. I definitely feel the pain of everything we haven’t achieved. I hope we get to it all as soon as possible. We need to stop the humanitarian aid. Every day we also need to state our demand what Gaza will look like on the day after."
He stressed that he believes that, "What we need to do in Gaza, at least in the first stage, is change our mode d’emploi to what we have in Judea and Samaria. At this stage we must make sure that there are no weapons there, no ability to harm us. I think that we need to bring back Jewish residents, who have been there since time immemorial, not just since 1967. Every time they showed weakness, when we went and brought [Yasser] Arafat here, and we brought him because we thought we were smart; every time we showed weakness, we got attacked by them. Even these days, when we are talking about bringing in non-Jewish workers from Judea and Samaria, they have explicitly said that they support the Hamas massacre. That's why I am saying – we have to stand up for ourselves. That's how it works in the Middle East. We don’t speak a Western language here, where if you are weak, they make it easier for you."