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Smotrich conveys red lines to Netanyahu ahead of Trump meeting

The Religious Zionism leader laid down six points his party won’t compromise on, including a complete Hamas withdrawal from Gaza and permanent IDF presence at the perimeter.

Israeli minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich attends a Finance committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Aug. 14, 2025. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Israeli minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich attends a Finance committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Aug. 14, 2025. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Israeli Finance Bezalel Smotrich, a key coalition member representing the Religious Zionism faction, on Monday publicized the red lines he said he had conveyed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the premier’s White House visit later in the day.

Wishing “great success” to Netanyahu in his meeting at the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump, where the two leaders will discuss finalizing a 21-point U.S. proposal to end the nearly two-year war in Gaza, Smotrich listed six issues that Religious Zionism will not compromise on.

They include: A full Hamas exit from Gaza and complete dismantling of all terror infrastructure above and below ground; a permanent IDF presence at the perimeter, including the Philadelphi Corridor, with full operational freedom to prevent smuggling and protect southern Israeli communities; no involvement of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza; no mention of a Palestinian state, even implicitly; no involvement in Qatar in Gaza; and allowing Gazans to leave the Strip via Egypt.

Smotrich also discussed his party’s expectations for Judea and Samaria in the X post, which “is to seize the historic opportunity of the Trump administration to remove the dangerous idea of establishing a terror state and dividing the land from the agenda once and for all, to politically and practically establish the fact that Judea and Samaria are an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel, and to put forward an alternative plan for managing the lives of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria themselves, without a collective or national aspirations that seek our destruction.”

Smotrich concluded: “The hopes of all generations and their prayers will accompany the prime minister in his important meeting, and may the Rock of Israel assist him in faithfully representing the eternity of Israel and securing its future in its one and only homeland.”

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