President Donald Trump and his administration would support Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria if Israel properly explained how crucial it is, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday.
Speaking in front of Jewish and Christian pro-Israel activists at a Jerusalem reception hosted by the World Zionist Congress “Israel365 Action” slate on the sovereignty issue, Smotrich profusely thanked Trump for his support of Israel, calling him a “messenger of God.”
“You can’t take issue with President Trump, who currently doesn’t support sovereignty, if he doesn’t know this is what the nation of Israel wants,” said Smotrich. “If he doesn’t understand that being on Israel’s side means supporting sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, we can’t blame him.”
The minister drew a comparison between Trump’s current stance on sovereignty and his views regarding the hostages held by Hamas when he assumed office in January.
Trump didn’t originally understand how important it was for Israeli society to bring the hostages home, how it was part of the country’s foundational ethos, which we are all mutually responsible for, said Smotrich.
“He didn’t understand why we insisted on this,” said Smotrich.
Trump, he continued, had wanted Israel to “just open the gates of hell on Gaza, finish the war, and ‘so what’ if the hostages don’t come home.”
It was the campaign led by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that convinced Trump that being on Israel’s side meant supporting the return of the hostages, he said.
Therefore, Israel must help Trump understand that being on Israel’s side this time means supporting the implementation of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, he continued.
“I’m 100% certain that if we persevere in this, in the Knesset, in the street, in the legal realm and in the media... if President Trump and his staff would understand how crucial, important and positive this move is, and how this establishes our rights to all of the land of Israel, I’m convinced he will support this,” said Smotrich.
That being said, the finance minister emphasized that implementing sovereignty is not conditional on Trump’s support.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights and Jerusalem in the early ‘80s without the permission of the U.S. administration, he noted, and during Trump’s first term decades later, “eventually they came around.”
“We will also apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and please God receive the recognition of the Americans,” he said.
During the gathering, held at the home of Israel365 Action WZC top delegate and philanthropist Tila Falic Levy, Levy told JNS her slate would be introducing two resolutions at this week’s 39th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem.
One advocates for the recognition of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria for the first time in the WZC, and the other calls for strengthening relations with Israel’s faith-based allies, specifically evangelical Christians.
“These are both new topics at the WZC and conversations on these issues must be held there. They are key issues for the future of the State of Israel,” she told JNS.
She shared that she has been an advocate for sovereignty for the past 25 years, and at the same time feels it is crucial for Israel to receive Christian support.
“Israel has a lot of enemies, but we also have a lot of allies. We need to recognize our friends and strengthen those friendships. We can’t do this alone,” she said.
Religious Zionist Party Knesset member Ohad Tal also participated in the event, and told JNS Israelis should not be discouraged by recent calls by U.S. Vice President JD Vance against the implementation of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
“The future of Israel is much greater and brighter than the words of any specific politician, even if he’s the vice president of the United States,” he said.
Tal insisted that the only way to bring about a future of true peace, security, and stability for Jews and Arabs alike is through sovereignty.
“Sovereignty will happen. No doubt about it,” he said.
Speaking in front of the guests, Tal reflected on the current war, saying it was “relatively easy” for Israel to strike in Tehran or in Yemen 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) away from its borders, because that was the “muscle of survival” used by the Jewish people for the past 2,000 years.
Victory in Gaza, or in Judea and Samaria, which means applying sovereignty, is a completely different story and is currently much more difficult to achieve because the problem is “it requires us to realize that the Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel, not because we’ve said so, but because God said so,” he added.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz, founder of Israel365 Action, used the opportunity of the gathering to launch his new book, “Universal Zionism,” which explores the Jewish-Christian partnership emerging from the ashes of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
He told JNS the event was a celebration of the Israel365 Action party’s election to the WZC.
“Israel365 thinks it’s so important to turn Zionism outwards, so that people around the world realize Zionism is as much of a blessing for Christians in Kentucky as it is for Jews in Jerusalem,” said Weisz.
