Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother-in-law, Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, spoke in the Arutz Sheva - Israel National News studio Thursday, offering scathing criticism and dire warnings regarding Israel’s agreement with Hamas.
When asked if he also feels a sense of joy at the news, Ben-Artzi replied: “There is always joy. I rejoiced when the three soldiers were freed in the Jibril Deal, and I rejoiced when Gilad Shalit returned. But at the time, even back then and even more so today, I knew that with our own hands we were signing the next kidnapping, the next massacre, and the next murders.”
Ben-Artzi noted that when he opposed the Shalit deal in 2011 and was labeled a “spoilsport,” he never imagined that its price would ultimately be “around two thousand dead and murdered, and thousands more wounded. And even now, we cannot fathom the scale of the next disaster we are signing onto at this very moment. We don’t yet see the faces or the names, the towns and the homes — but for me, it’s already real. For forty years already, I’ve fought against the moral abomination of releasing terrorists.”
Responding to claims that Israel is now paying the price for Netanyahu’s refusal to approve a Shin Bet plan to eliminate Yahya Sinwar, Ben-Artzi stressed that mistakes are not corrected by making even greater mistake: “We are caught in a chain reaction. We erred with the Jibril Deal forty years ago and should have learned our lesson. Rabin later regretted that mistake when he realized it had led to the First Intifada, with hundreds killed and thousands wounded. A rational person learns from the past, but for forty years already we’ve been making deals, and each time the price that we pay after the deal is greater, because we are not only releasing the next terror leaders but also creating motivation to continue the murder and massacre and kidnappings because see, it pays to kill Jews.”
When asked whether he understands that the majority of Israelis rejoice at the signing of this deal, Ben-Artzi replied, “I’m speaking about facts — about what happened after the Jibril Deal, what happened after the Oslo Accords, what happened after the Shalit Deal.”
He added that the Israeli public is experiencing a kind of “psychosis,” demanding the return of a child now held in Gaza while ignoring and erasing the future price that will be paid.
“We’ve been in a psychosis since the Yom Kippur War, which traumatized us with thousands of dead. We’ve entered a mindset of surrendering and retreating just to get a little quiet. This path leads to disaster, because the enemy understands our weak point—and they will exploit it completely,” Ben-Artzi warned.
According to him, Israel is walking into a trap that could come at a horrifying price: “In this agreement, we’ve effectively agreed to leave Gaza’s residents when Gaza is in ruins, and they have nowhere to return to. A million people are in tents, in the rain, and reconstruction will take years. We’ve brought them back to a refugee reality like in 1948, and they now have a perfect solution, and they will begin a ‘March of Return’ to return not to Gaza or Jabaliya, but to Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Be’er Sheva.”
Warned that Israel would be powerless to stop such a march, since it is impossible to fire at a million and a half people walking toward the fence, claiming they’re returning home.
“[US] President [Donald] gave us the right solution immediately after taking office - ‘conquer and we'll start a process of emigration.’ But because of our hostage psychosis, we wanted another ten or twenty hostages freed and lost the chance for a strategic solution. The only solution is removing the refugees. If they are not removed, they’ll march on Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be’er Sheva, because in 1948 they were expelled from there. Now that they’re in tents, they have nowhere to return to — and what will the State of Israel do when faced with them?”
He also cited Supreme Court rulings that prohibit firing on civilians—something, he said, that would prevent Israel from responding to a mass civilian march from Gaza.
When asked whether international investment could transform Gaza into a regional economic hub, Ben-Artzi dismissed the idea, recalling repeated assurances from security officials who had claimed Israel’s security was “better than ever,” and “we collapsed,” he noted.
He also noted that similar statements were made just prior to the October 7th massacre: “I no longer trust senior security officials who always say afterward that they ‘didn’t know’ or ‘thought something else.’”
“Hamas keeps talking about the ‘Right of Return,’ saying this is a historic opportunity to realize it through non-military means, and the Arab states will encourage them, because their goal isn’t to solve the refugee problem but to exploit it to erase the State of Israel.”
Regarding criticism of himself, Ben-Artzi said that many people not only call him delusional and messianic, but even cruel and heartless for opposing the deal.
“They also said that about me before the Shalit deal, when I was almost the only one who stood against the deal and told them they were pushing Israel towards a terrible disaster. You cannot save your son by killing hundreds — which turned out to be thousands. I’m willing to be called bad, crazy, evil, and messianic a thousand times over, because after being proven right four times, we have the moral right to say: enough with this madness. Every time we bring upon ourselves an even greater disaster — and the next disaster will be far worse. We cannot even imagine the next disaster.”