Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli spoke on Sunday afternoon at the opening of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which is being held for the 50th time in Jerusalem.
In a one-on-one conversation with Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein in front of the organization's leaders, Minister Chikli addressed his decision to vote against the first stage of the hostage deal: "Before I entered that government meeting, I had declared that I would vote in favor of the deal. However, during the meeting, after hearing the assessments from various security officials, I decided to oppose it. The reason for my opposition was that I understood who the prisoners were that we were releasing in exchange for our hostages.
"This deal includes the release of 700 terrorists - terror experts with records of dozens of attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis and wounded thousands. These are the same terrorists responsible for the Second Intifada and for other severe attacks. For me, this deal is reminiscent of the Shalit deal. It's a problematic deal because it empties our prisons. I'll give an example: The commander of Hamas’s attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 was a terrorist released in the Shalit deal. You cannot fix a bad deal with an even worse one."
Chikli added: "I'm stating here and now that I will also be unable to support the second stage of the deal. For me, it will actually be even simpler. I cannot vote in favor of the next victims—whether in Gush Etzion, Megiddo, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Afula, or anywhere else. In this deal, we project weakness. If we had applied more military and international pressure, we could have reached a much better deal months ago. In my view, before we proceed with the second stage of the deal, we need to go back to applying effective pressure on Hamas, which would then lead to a far more reasonable agreement. I believe we are the only country in the world that has stepped back from the battlefield to make a hostage deal. My conclusion from all of this is that we need to be much tougher with our enemies."
Referring to antisemitism in the Diaspora, Minister Chikli said: "Antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration. The European right-wing parties have a point because they realize the problem and are presenting a solution. They understand the challenge of radical Islam and they are willing to take the necessary steps. So many countries have it completely wrong. Look at the UK, for example, I'm not sure that what is happening there is reversible. These countries need to get a hold of the problem."