Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expresses that the “concept of the small and smart army” which “Israel” glorifies has “collapsed,” and it now needs a “large and ferocious army.”
-
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on March 5, 2023 (AP)
Speaking to Israeli Army Radio, “Israel’s” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed that he no longer trusts the Israeli occupation forces after the events of October 7.
“We gave the security system a blank check, and we ended up with the Oct. 7 attacks, I stopped trusting the army,” Smotrich said, adding, “I love them [the soldier] and appreciate them, but I am not willing to give them unlimited permission to act.”
Smotrich expresses that the “concept of the small and smart army” which “Israel” glorifies has “collapsed,” and it now needs a “large and ferocious army.”
This is not Smotrich’s first attack against the IOF since October 7’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Last month, he defaced the IOF’s Chief-of-Staff Herzi Halevi in an interview for Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, drawing an onslaught of criticism for his stark remarks.
Read more: Netanyahu leading ‘Israel’ to ultimate defeat: Israeli media
Smotrich held Halevi responsible for the occupation’s failure to prevent and circumvent Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, saying that the top commander “brought [Israel] one of its greatest disasters.”
“This IDF chief of staff brought us one of the greatest disasters in the history of the country,” Smotrich told Channel 12, adding, “It isn’t just that [Halevi] failed on the 7th of October, it is a long-standing failure.”
In an article published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, Israeli Res. General Itzhak Brik said that Halevi was “isolated and silent, and has lost control of the ground for a long time.”
Brik added that Halevi’s decision to appoint new colonels and majors in his own image was “the most serious scandal and failure since the founding of the army and Israel.”
He said that instead of taking responsibility and resigning, Halevi “decided to strengthen the generation of chaos and failure that he heads, along with the brigade commanders who are his partners in failure.”
Brik also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Security Minister Yoav Gallant, and Halevi, saying that they were “leading Israel to nowhere, to a dead end from which there is no return.”
