Israel's inner Cabinet convened Sunday night for a lengthy security discussion that lasted about five hours.
The discussion dealt with the emerging agreement between the United States and Iran, as well as the threat of Hezbollah's explosive drones, which has claimed the lives of several IDF soldiers on the Lebanon front.
During the meeting, a heated argument developed over the response to the drone threat between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
According to a report by Ynet, Netanyahu demanded protective solutions from the military, and repeated his directive to the IDF to work quickly and formulate a response to the serious problem. Smotrich opposed the defensive approach and told Netanyahu, "We cannot protect ourselves to death. We need to bring down ten buildings in Dahieh in response to every drone."
The Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut is home to Hezbollah's elite members and military headquarters.
The Prime Minister did not like the solution proposed by the Finance Minister and asked, "What are you suggesting? That every time there is a drone, we bring down ten buildings? And when there is a drone in Gaza, we bring down ten buildings in Gaza? And when there is a drone from Judea and Samaria, we bring down ten buildings in Judea and Samaria? And then when there is a drone from a crime family, we bring down ten buildings in Ramle?"
Smotrich replied that he supported that approach and argued, "Absolutely yes. A war is won through deterrence and exacting a price. Protecting ourselves to death is October 6. Draw for me where you want to stretch the defense nets in the skies of the country. Over Kfar Saba? Ra’anana as well, or only Ramle and Lod?"
During the tense discussion, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir expressed a position supporting a harsher response in order to create deterrence: "We cannot work with tweezers. We need to create a different equation that also includes striking buildings in Beirut and Tyre in order to deter."
Earlier, Smotrich visited the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria and inaugurated the "Rimon" system for land registration in Judea and Samaria.
During his visit, Smotrich noted the drone threat from Lebanon and said, "This week I approved a huge budget of about two billion shekels for technological solutions to the drone threat. Among other things, the money will allow civilian bodies to offer solutions and out-of-the-box ideas. But the truth is that we will not defeat the drones through defense, but through offense."
He added, "For every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut need to fall. A strategic threat is not answered only with protection, but with a change in the rules and the equation. We will not be able to spread nets over the entire State of Israel, nor cover it with automatic machine guns. We cannot protect ourselves to death. Exacting a disproportionate and deterrent price from the enemy must be part of the effort to defend our soldiers."
At the end of the visit to the Civil Administration, Smotrich concluded: "We are standing here in the Judea and Samaria Division. Our presence here is the reason there are not yet explosive drones in Jerusalem and Kfar Saba, in Afula and Be’er Sheva. The physical hold on the ground, the intelligence, the determined military activity, and the deterrence we create here, day by day and hour by hour, is the State of Israel’s security zone, because settlement brings security. Period."