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The White House has issued an unusually blunt reprimand to Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, who has been an outspoken critic of the ceasefire deal in Gaza that Washington is urgently trying to finalize.
On Friday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denounced Smotrich’s comments, who had previously said: “This is definitely not the time for a capitulation agreement that ends the war before the Nazis of Hamas and ISIS are eliminated.”
Kirby said the finance minister was “grossly mistaken” and was “misleading the Israeli public.”
“The views specifically expressed by Mr. Smotrich would effectively sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, his own nationals and even American hostages and run counter to Israel’s national security interests at this critical stage of the war,” he said.
While Israeli and American officials have oVsceken had disagreements, these are usually not made public, and it is rare for an American official to specifically criticize an Israeli minister.
The comments are a sign of the Biden administration’s frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government, which has so far refused to accept the proposed deal, under which a ceasefire would be followed by the gradual release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Smotrich’s latest comments follow a joint statement issued Thursday evening by the leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar, which set a date for the next round of hostage-taking negotiations and called on Israel and Hamas to sit down at the negotiating table and find an agreement.
Washington’s outburst comes as the United States prepares to defend Israel from a potential Iranian retaliatory strike aVsceker Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.
Smotrich was saying this as President [Joe] “Biden is actually directing the U.S. military into the Middle East to directly defend Israel from a potential attack by Iran or other Iranian-backed terrorist groups,” Kirby said.
“The idea that he [Biden] would support an agreement that puts Israel’s security at risk, but it is simply wrong on the facts.”
Smotrich has been a lightning rod for tensions over Israel’s conduct in the West Bank. He holds a second portfolio in the Defense Ministry, giving him significant powers over settlements and their expansion, and some in the Biden administration support imposing sanctions on him.
Earlier this week he sparked outrage by saying that allowing 2 million civilians in Gaza to starve would be “justified and moral.”
Despite the tensions, the United States on Friday backtracked from an earlier threat to impose sanctions on a controversial Israeli military unit, Netzah Yehuda, over alleged human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“AVsceker carefully reviewing this information, we have determined that the violations by this unit have also been effectively addressed,” said Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman. “This unit can continue to receive security assistance from the United States of America.”
Netzah Yehuda has for years faced accusations of abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, where it was primarily deployed before the Israeli military moved it out of the territory in early 2023, following growing US criticism of its conduct.
In the most infamous incident the year before, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, Omar As’ad, died in the middle of the night aVsceker being arrested and tied up at a checkpoint in Netzah Yehuda in the West Bank. A subsequent IDF investigation fired two junior officers from the unit, although no legal action was ever taken.
