Hadeel Al-Shalchi
Appearances
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was once a wanted man by Israel's version of the FBI. In 2005, Israel was rocked by mass protests. Israeli settlers were demonstrating against the removal of Jewish settlements from Gaza. At the time, Dvir Kariv was an agent with Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Kariv says late on July 11, 2005, they raided a home in central Israel.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
He says, in the basement, we found several jerrycans filled with a lot of oil and fuel.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
They arrested five people there. One of them was a student called Bezalel Smotrich. Kariv says the men were interrogated for three and a half weeks. From the Shin Bet's perspective, we successfully thwarted what Bezalel Smotrich and his group had planned, Kariv says.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
While he says he can't divulge what that was, Israeli media has reported that Smotrich and his group were planning to blow up a major Israeli highway. Smoltrich remained completely silent during his interrogations and was released without charge. He did not give away his secrets, but later as a politician, he spoke a lot about what drives his political motivations.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
My long-term desire is for the state of Israel to be governed according to the Torah, or Jewish holy scripture, he once told Israeli radio. Smotrich is an ultra-nationalist religious Zionist, a type of Judaism that branched out from the secular Zionist movement that founded Israel. While many ultra-religious Jews historically rejected the Zionist movement, a minority accepted it.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Many of them embraced the settlement movement after Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the War of 1967. Tomer Persico is a scholar of Jewish extremism.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Persico says Smotrich is on the far right of the spectrum of religious Zionism, also known as ultra-Orthodox nationalists, who follow Jewish law and reject values like feminism, liberalism, and LGBTQ rights. Smotrich and his followers believe that the Israeli-occupied West Bank is the Jewish people's ancestral home featured in the Bible, a God-given land they must make a permanent part of Israel.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich, a lawyer, was first elected to parliament in 2015. Two years later, he wrote a manifesto called Israel's Decisive Plan. In it, he writes how to tackle the main obstacle to settling the West Bank, the Palestinians.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Only a few years later, Smotrich became the leader of the religious Zionist party. Ohad Tal is a lawmaker in Smotrich's party.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich was perfectly poised for what happened in the most recent Israeli national election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won and looked for allies to form a coalition. But he's facing trial on corruption charges. Persico says Netanyahu was desperate.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
The only parties that would agree to form a government with Netanyahu were the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionists, including Smotrich's party. Netanyahu formed a coalition with them, giving them more power than they had ever had before. The prime minister appointed Smotrich as finance minister and to the Ministry of Defense. Jewish extremism scholar Persico.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
After the October 2023 attacks on Israel, Netanyahu called on Smotrich to be part of his war cabinet. The finance minister reached for his faith.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
he told a group of religious students last year in a video posted online. Smotrich is reported to regularly consult with a group of rabbis known as the Five. Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira is one of them. He has opposed a hostage deal. There is joy that hostages will return. But despite that joy, this is a very bad deal for Israel, Shapira said in an online lecture.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Persico says Smotrich's faithful devotion is evident every time he threatens to collapse Netanyahu's coalition if the war doesn't continue in Gaza, where he ultimately wants to see Jewish settlements rebuilt.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich has leveraged this power to further settler ambitions in the West Bank. Just days after Israel paused the war in January and agreed to a deal with Hamas for the release of hostages, Netanyahu ordered the escalation of incursions in the West Bank, causing massive destruction in urban refugee camps and displacing thousands of Palestinians. Israel says it's to weed out Palestinian militants.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Smotrich was sidelined under President Biden's administration for his anti-Palestinian rhetoric. And in Israel, polls show that he would not survive another election. Only 11% of the Israeli population voted for Smotrich's party in the last elections in 2022. This month, Smotrich was invited to Washington, D.C. to meet with his counterpart in President Trump's administration.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Smolchich rarely gives interviews to U.S. Western media. This month, he gave his first press conference since his trip to the U.S., and I posed a question to him. I have two questions. Do you know anything about plans for the annexation of the West Bank? Smolchich objects to the word annexation.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
Annexation implies taking something that isn't yours, the minister says. Judea and Samaria, the biblical name for the West Bank, belongs to us. Trump told reporters his administration would announce its position on West Bank annexation by early March. That date has passed.
Consider This from NPR
Why did Israel restart the war? One answer: Bezalel Smotrich.
I reply, Is Trump the man who will make it happen for you? Will he support you to make it happen? We believe this is the right thing to do, he says. We're engaged in discussions and dialogue. So while Smotrich firmly believes he has God's mandate to take over the West Bank, the question is whether he also has Trump's blessing.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 8PM EST
HTS is a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. No additional information was given on what it would take for the U.S. to drop that designation. The State Department also said the delegation sought more information about the whereabouts of missing American journalist Austin Tice. Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Damascus.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-20-2024 8PM EST
The U.S. State Department says the diplomatic delegation discussed, quote, transition principles with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which makes up the interim Syrian government. It said they also discussed the importance of fighting against ISIS. HTS has roots in al-Qaeda and some factions that made up the rebel forces which toppled former President Bashar al-Assad had ties to ISIS.