Finance Minister and Minister in the Ministry of Defense Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday strongly criticized the IDF General Staff and the round of appointments in the IDF during the war.
"Nothing will happen if people stay in office for another few months. These appointments are going to create difficulty with the debriefings. This General Staff, which completely failed on October 7, has brought upon us one of the greatest disasters in Israel’s history, and it did not fail only on October 7; this is a long-lasting failure of a misconception that collapsed," Smotrich told Channel 12 News.
He added that “this General Staff will not model the IDF into the next generation. It will not appoint the new commanders after the change. There is no more trust in them for this. Currently, we are totally supporting them to win the war; but nothing more than that.”
Smotrich was asked if he would suggest not sending the Israeli delegation to negotiations on the hostages. He replied: "I think that the best way to bring the hostages home is to cut off negotiations and renew intensive military effort – now we must enter Rafah."
We should have entered Rafah six weeks to two months ago. There is no argument about whether we should be bringing the hostages back home – the debate is how to do it. There is no proposal on the agenda today, and there is a debate about it," he emphasized.
Smotrich noted that "we accepted the previous deal because Hamas was under a lot of pressure. We were united and very aggressive. Currently, Hamas is not in the same situation, so they are going crazy. I thought we should have entered the central camps and Rafah in a more continuous and determined campaign. The timing of Ramadan was actually beneficial to us in this regard."