Israeli Finance Minister: Netanyahu has bowed down to Trump.
Haredim 10, After the Knesset vote on sovereignty over the West Bank and the anger of the Americans, Bezalel Smotrich, the regime’s Finance Minister, attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night (Saturday) for avoiding raising the issue of sovereignty with US President Donald Trump, saying that Netanyahu must now convince Trump to accept this issue, just like he did with the prisoners issue, to change his position.
Smotrich, publishing a long post on the X Network (formerly Twitter), argued that when Trump came to power, he was unaware of the importance of releasing the prisoners and regularly protested the prolongation of the Gaza war, but eventually, with repeated requests from the prisoners’ families and the insistence of Israeli officials, he understood the importance of this issue and changed his opinion and policy towards Gaza.
Criticizing why Trump supported the issue of “freeing Israeli prisoners” but has banned the issue of sovereignty for right-wingers and Zionist settlers, he said: “The only way to change the position and policy of the US President is to repeatedly repeat this demand and the importance that Israelis attach to exercising sovereignty and eliminating the dangerous idea of forming a Palestinian state. This is while the Israeli Knesset has overwhelmingly declared its opposition to the formation of a Palestinian state and its support for exercising sovereignty.”
Then, criticizing Netanyahu’s emphasis on the release of Israeli prisoners, Smotrich wrote: “Unfortunately, Netanyahu, who supported their return and had repeatedly explained the importance of their release to Trump, does not do the same regarding sovereignty and avoids raising it in his negotiations with the president.”
He objected to Trump’s opposition to the issue of exercising Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, saying that the US President easily sold Israel to Arab countries and gave up sovereignty in exchange for a Gaza ceasefire agreement and perhaps to expand the Abraham Accords. Because he does not understand how important the issue of sovereignty is to Israelis, and that America’s support for Israel means supporting the exercise of sovereignty and the destruction of the idea of establishing a Palestinian state.