Bezalel Smotrich
Bezalel SmotrichFlash 90

On Mar 5, 2023, Arutz 7 reported "An US official quoted by Channel 12 News said on Saturday night that the administration is considering preventing Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the United States, following his comments that the Arab village of Huwara should be “wiped out”. The official said that it would be better for Smotrich to announce of his own accord that he is canceling the visit, and "save himself the embarrassment, since all Biden administration officials refused to meet with him anyway."

Smotrich is scheduled to depart for the US this week and take part in an Israel Bonds conference. According to a report by Channel 12 News’ Dana Weiss, discussions are currently taking place in Washington on whether to grant Smotrich an entry visa, partly on the grounds that he incites violence and promotes war crimes. On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Smotrich is now considered “persona non grata on steroids” in Washington due to the comments on Huwara, and that no officials from the Biden administration are planning to meet him as a result.

Smotrich on Saturday night discussed his statement, which he made following the shooting attack in which Hallel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered. "It wasn't the correct word, I misspoke," he clarified, but explained, "We need to be clear in our fight against terror." He again stressed that "the statement was made in the heat of emotions. I'm uncomfortable knowing that I have to clarify this and that there are those who think that I support harming innocent civilians." Prime Minister Netanyahu responded sarcastically to the attacks on Smotrich, saying "None of us are without mistakes, including foreign diplomats."

It seems that injudicious words about razing the terror-ridden Arab town of Huwara, said in the emotional moments following the bestial murder of two young Israelis, are more significant than repeated calls to raze the entire country of Israel.

Remarks made by Mahmoud Abbas, for example. Despite 20% of the population within pre-1967 being Israeli Arab citizens with full civil rights, Abbas called for ethnically cleansing and expelling all Jews from Judea and Samaria. He also pays terrorists who murder Jews and calls them heroes. The Biden administration never called to revoke his visa or to consider him "persona non grata".

Abbas is also racist and rabidly antisemitic: On Jews entering the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, he said: "They have no right to desecrate the mosque with their dirty feet, we won’t allow them to do that," as reported on Arutz Sheva.

This call for a terror wave included statements by Abbas in early September, in which he blessed every drop of blood shed in Jerusalem “for Allah” and called to stop those “filthy” Jews from visiting the Temple Mount.

In early October, as the terror wave began gaining steam, Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said that murdering Jews is a “national duty.” In early November Abbas also ordered full military funerals for terrorists.

But if Abbas decided to visit the USA, every official would be willing to meet with him and no one would suggest throwing him from a plane.

And Iran? Iranian leaders also have repeatedly called to "wipe Israel of the map" yet Obama said Iran should be a regional power.

In an interview to the NYTimes recorded in the video below on Jul 14, 2015 Obama said : “Iran Will Be And Should Be A Regional Power” .

Obama: “Iran Will Be And Should Be A Regional Power”

Obama said Iran should be a regional power despite Iran's calls to destroy Israel. On August 11, 2016 Newsmax reported Khamenei’s genocidal intentions: Supreme ruler Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran has published a book on how to destroy Israel, arguing that his position is based on “well-established Islamic principles.”

The 416-page book is titled Palestine. An item on the book's back cover describes Khamenei as “The flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.” The book explains that land that falls under Muslim rule, even briefly, can never again be ceded to non-Muslims, the Post reported. “What matters in Islam is ownership of a land’s government, even if the majority of inhabitants are non-Muslims.”

Khamenei also argues that Israel is a special case because the nation is a loyal “ally of the American Great Satan,” meaning the United States; because it has warred against Muslims on many occasions; and because Israel occupies Jerusalem, which Khamenei describes as “Islam’s third Holy City.”

Iranian leaders have repeatedly called to wipe Israel off the map. Khamenei describes Israel as a "cancerous tumor" that has to be eliminated, and Former President Rafsanjani once called Israel a “one-bomb country” because it is so small it can be destroyed with only one bomb. Iran wants to destroy Israel and if it builds a nuclear bomb it could cause a Nuclear Holocaust.

Despite this, Iranian leaders are not considered "persona non grata" or denied entry visas to speak in the US.

And Iran's president Ebraim Raisi? Raisi was allowed to visit NY to speak at the UN in 2021. Al Arabia reported "Raisi’s name is tied to Iran’s mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, when he was allegedly a leading member of what came to be known as the “death committee,” a group of Iranian judiciary and intelligence officials put together by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini to oversee the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners at the time. Most of the victims were leftist activists and members of the dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed, while MEK puts the number at 30,000 without offering evidence to support their claim.

But democratically elected Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who even apoligized for words said in the heat of anger? Heaven forfend.

Ezequiel Doiny is author of “Obama’s assault on Jerusalem’s Western Wall” and “Jerusalem is Spiritual the capital of Judaism while Mecca is Spiritual the Capital of Islam”