Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, sharply criticized IDF chief of staff’s management of the war against Hamas, speaking during a TV appearance on Sunday.
“He has no strategic view of how war is waged,” Smotrich told Channel 14‘s “The Patriots” current affairs program of Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. “He has no strategic vision.”
Smotrich accused Halevi of failing to take charge of the humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip despite being ordered to do so.
Israel, under pressure from the Biden administration and others, permitted humanitarian aid to enter Gaza unguarded. Most of it was stolen by Hamas, which sold it to the civilian population at inflated prices. The money, estimated at a half billion dollars, allowed the terrorist group to survive.
The IDF resisted demands to take responsibility for the aid.
Israel needs to take both civilian and military control of Gaza, Smotrich said. “This is the only way to create a situation where there is no Hamas. And the truth must be told, the IDF chief of staff for a year fudged the directives of the political echelon time and again to take responsibility for the management of the humanitarian aid,” he said.
Smotrich revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had put into writing in December instructions for the IDF to prepare to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid but that the IDF still has not done so.
He suggested that there were doctrinal problem influencing not just Halevi but a generation of IDF officers. “They have a very deep mental inhibition toward anything that might smell like ‘occupation.’ The words ‘military government’ were placed outside the Israeli lexicon.”
Smotrich objected, “We need to conquer Gaza and Gaza should have a military government, period. There is no other way.”
The minister, who publicly considered quitting the government over the ceasefire-for-hostages deal, said that his party remained in the coalition because of other important decisions that were taken in Cabinet debates.
One of those decision was a commitment to achieve the war’s aims, “including the destruction of Hamas,” which would involve “completely different management of the war.”
This would include Israeli military and civilian control of the Gaza Strip, encouraging the voluntary emigration of Gazans from the Strip, and taking territory from the enemy, Smotrich said.
