Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, addressed the hostage deal on the agenda on Monday at the opening of his party meeting. He began his remarks by referring to the recent news: "In the last few hours, we were informed of IDF Captain Mordechai Kadmon, may his memory be a blessing, being killed in action in Gaza. Additionally, we heard about the murder in Hamas captivity of Alex Dancyg and Yagiv Buchstab, may God avenge their deaths." He added: "The blood of the brave soldier who, together with his friends, has been going house to house, tunnel to tunnel, shaft to shaft for nine months, doing everything to locate and rescue our captives and destroy the monsters of Hamas along with the blood of Alex and Yagiv, who were murdered in captivity by the monsters of Hamas. We must not stop for a moment the most just war we have set out for; we must not stop the war before achieving all the goals we set, which are the destruction of Hamas, returning our captives home, and restoring security to the citizens of Israel." He continued addressing the Prime Minister's trip to the United States: "I send Prime Minister Netanyahu a blessing of success on his important mission to the US to make Israel's voice heard to the American people and the entire world. The State of Israel faces immense international pressure to force it to commit suicide and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state. All means are acceptable to achieve this goal, including imposing sanctions on settlers and organizations, threats to impose sanctions on me personally, unilaterally recognizing and making disconnected and absurd decisions in the Hague." Smotrich clarified: "I stand here and promise you, I will never surrender. The people of Israel will not surrender. We will do everything to ensure that a Palestinian state is never established in the Land of Israel, which will endanger our existence. We are working day and night on the ground to thwart this and, with God's help, will also bring about the application of Israeli sovereignty." Related articles: 'A historic revolution in Judea and Samaria' Israel cancels all import tariffs on US products 'Will not neglect safety of Jewish residents' Smotrich resigns from government in spat with Ben-Gvir Regarding the sanctions against settlers, Smotrich said: "I call from here to the Prime Minister, do not remain silent in the face of the sanctions on Israeli citizens and the settlers in Judea and Samaria. Raise your voice clearly and clarify that there are things that partners and allies do not do." Regarding the captives in Gaza and the deal on the table, he said: "We do not forget our sisters and brothers held captive in Gaza and the goals for which we went to war. I say again that we cannot ease the military pressure on Hamas now and enter another cycle of empty talks that will harm the achievements of the war, allow Hamas to rebuild, and distance the chance of returning all the captives. Unfortunately, the senior command in the IDF again does not know its place and, instead of focusing on continuing and intensifying the fight against Hamas, expresses political and diplomatic positions in favor of a reckless deal beyond its authority and purview." He criticized: "The arrogant statement heard from them again and again, according to which 'we will know how to handle any price of a deal', brought upon us the Oslo disaster, the expulsion from Gush Katif, the release of Sinwar and a thousand terrorists in the Shalit deal, and ultimately also the terrible massacre on Simchat Torah. You could not handle it then and will not be able to handle it now if a deal is signed, God forbid, in which Israel gives up all the achievements of the war, releases murderers, and allows the restoration of Hamas's power. Stop talking and preaching, continue fighting and killing! The pointed, heartbreaking public debate will take place here in the Knesset and the government, held by public servants as is appropriate in a democracy."
