BBC published the statement. Seeking warrants where none have yet been issued.
The prosecutor requested the Court to issue the warrants. The Court is yet to respond.
USAToday reporting. Specific individuals are named.
Guardian reporting, here and here in an exclusive background mode.
____________UPDATE____________
There are ways to speculate without insider knowledge of Netanyahu and his ministers and their thinking intentions. Ditto, House Republicans wanting mileage with "The Jewish Vote," - bought into AIPAC and vice versa.
The message is Trump gave you Kushner and Friedman and other key gimmies, greenlighting saying "Fuck You" to the civilized world, "Two States" died 2016 onward (murdered actually) because of how Ivanka married - - - go for "Greater Isreal" and there's no cause to dawdle. Hit a speed bump 2020, but plan anew, fat city is on the horizon if you just gin AIPAC Gestalt and grease our GOP wheels.
Something like that seems the view from outside, both cadres - House GOP and Bibi bros in the Middle East. Boy we can move, we can shake, ain't no stopping us, no how. On the move, in a groove. Watch the dust we raise. Biblical homeland, all that. All of it.
FURTHER: Times of Israel, English language online version, March 2023 (a half year before Oct. 7, but still problematic):
Smotrich says there’s no Palestinian people, declares his family ‘real Palestinians’
In Paris, far-right minister says Palestinian nation is ‘an invention of past 100 years,’ and ‘world should hear this truth’; speaks in front of Israel map that includes Jordan
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks in Paris on March 19, 2023. (Ynet screenshot; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)Far-right lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday that the Palestinian people were “an invention” from the last century and that people like himself and his grandparents were the “real Palestinians.”
Speaking in Paris at a private memorial service for prominent right-wing Likud activist and Jewish Agency board member Jacques Kupfer, who passed away after a long battle with cancer in 2021, Smotrich said there was “no such thing as Palestinians because there’s no such thing as the Palestinian people,” a comment that was met with applause and cheers from attendees, as seen in a video from the event posted online.
“Do you know who are the Palestinians?” asked the head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party and Israel’s finance minister. “I’m Palestinian,” he said, also mentioning his grandmother who was born in the northern Israeli town of Metula 100 years ago, and his grandfather, a 13th-generation Jerusalemite, as the “real Palestinians.”
Smotrich was speaking from a podium that featured a map of “Greater Israel” that included the territory of modern-day Jordan, in accordance with hardline aspirations by some early Zionist groups.
Smotrich has a history of making inflammatory statements against Palestinians, Arab citizens of Israel, non-Orthodox Jews, and the LGBTQ community including once declaring himself a “proud homophobe.” In 2021, he said David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, should have “finished the job” and kicked all Arabs out of the country when it was founded. Earlier that same year, he said members of Israel’s Arab minority communities were citizens “for now at least.”
Earlier this month, the minister — a senior figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline coalition — stirred international outrage after calling to “wipe out” a Palestinian town in the West Bank following a deadly Palestinian terror attack that killed two Israeli brothers. He later backtracked the comment and apologized.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a press conference in Tel Aviv, March 2, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)Smotrich also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, where coalition agreements gave him authority over some responsibilities of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a Defense Ministry unit in charge of civilian affairs in Area C of the West Bank where Israel has full security and civilian control, and it’s office, the Civil Administration. Area C comprises the 60 percent of the West Bank’s territory in which Israeli settlements are located and where Israel maintains military and administrative control over both the Israeli and the Palestinian populations.
Smotrich, a staunch opponent to the establishment of a Palestinian state, sees control of the Civil Administration as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, replacing the military administration of the territory with direct control by the central government and its ministries.
On Sunday, in Hebrew remarks translated into French for the audience, Smotrich said, “the Palestinian people are an invention of less than 100 years ago.”
“Is there a Palestinian history or culture? No. There were Arabs in the Middle East who arrived in the Land of Israel at the same time as the Jewish immigration and the beginning of Zionism. After 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel were returning home, and there were Arabs around [us] who do not like it. So what do they do? They invent a fictitious people in the Land of Israel and claim fictitious rights in the Land of Israel just to fight the Zionist movement.”
“This is the historical truth. This is the biblical truth. The Arabs in the Land of Israel need to hear this truth. This truth should be heard here in the Élysée Palace,” said Smotrich, in reference to the official residence of French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government is not meeting with Smotrich on this private trip to France.
“This truth should also be heard by the Jewish people in the State of Israel who are a little confused. This truth needs to be heard in the White House in Washington. The whole world needs to hear this truth because it is the truth — and the truth will win,” Smotrich continued.
Turning to Israel’s Arab communities, the ultranationalist lawmaker claimed that they should “stop spitting into the well [they] are drinking from.”
“The State of Israel is a miracle, Israel’s economy is a miracle. Contrary to the lies of the leaders of the [BDS] campaign that are spreading against us in the world, we are spreading good to all the residents of the country, Jews and non-Jews. Look around, in all 22 [Muslim-majority] countries, is there another country where [people live] such a good life? A modern country with a developing economy, with freedom of religion, freedom of expression… There is no country like this in the world. Stop fighting the State of Israel and the people of Israel. You will lose and we will win because the Holy One, blessed be He, is with us,” Smotrich said.
The comments came hours after Israeli and Palestinian Authority delegations met on Sunday for a relatively rare, albeit low-stakes regional summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where they recommitted to de-escalating tensions days before the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The meeting, with accompanying delegations from the United States, Jordan and Egypt, was a follow-up to a similar gathering held in Aqaba, Jordan last month — the first such high-level confab of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in years. The sides have agreed to meet for a third time next month.
On a visit to the US last week, where he met no US official from the Biden administration, Smotrich told American investors he was sorry for calling to “wipe out” the Palestinian town of Huwara and pledged to “protect every innocent life, Jew or Arab,” even as several hundred American Jews and Israeli ex-pats protested his appearance outside. Some had called to deny Smotrich a US visa over the comment.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, fourth from left, meets executives of US bank Citibank in New York, March 14, 2023. (Courtesy)Smotrich spoke to some 150 leaders in the Israel Bonds organization at a private gala dinner, attempting to drum up continued support for Israel’s economy despite reports of investment money fleeing the country due to the upheaval around the judicial overhaul plan being pushed by Netanyahu’s government.
In Paris early last month, Netanyahu met with Macron, who warned that without changes to his government’s far-reaching plans to overhaul the judicial system, “Paris should conclude that Israel has emerged from a common conception of democracy.”
Macron also pressed Netanyahu on rising violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging Israel to avoid “any measures that could fuel the spiral of violence,” the palace said.
The French president also delivered a warning on Netanyahu’s attempts to widen the Abraham Accords. “If you continue what you are doing in Palestine, it will be difficult for Saudi Arabia to accept an agreement with you,” Macron said.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, right gestures as he welcomes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, prior to a working dinner at the Presidential Elysee Palace in Paris on February 2, 2023. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)The prime minister said he must give something to his coalition in terms of settlements, but that it would be less than what Smotrich and fellow hard-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir desire. Both are vehemently opposed to the establishment of any future Palestinian state.
Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
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You cannot call "Hidden Agenda" with this Smotrich individual. He's explicit. God siding with him - he said so, so it must be true. Clearly not the mood of the whole of Israel, but a voice on the rise. Zion uber Alles.
LAST - If you believe opposing virulent Zionism is "antisemitism" because you read that somewhere, God bless. Wear a MAGA cap as your badge of ignorance. It fits.
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FURTHER: Smotrich is not alone as an overzealous hot-head. He's got company, as a loud, incessant voice of Zion uber Alles. Others in Zion think, "We got given the jets, we're being given the bombs, things have a purpose, let's have more adventurous assertive expansionist necessary action -- for The Cause."
More Times of Israel coverage days ago:
Ben Gvir suggests Israel should invade Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah in its entirety
Ultranationalist minister says Smotrich didn’t go far enough in demanding Israeli military control only in south Lebanon, calls for Gantz and Gallant to be sent packing
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during an official Memorial Day ceremony at the Ashdod Military Cemetery, May 13, 2024. (Liron Moldovan/Flash90)National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir suggested Monday that Israel should invade Lebanon in order to destroy Hezbollah in its entirety, saying that a similar demand from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich the previous day to launch a military operation in southern Lebanon did not go far enough.
The ultranationalist minister, who oversees the Israel Police, told 104.5 FM radio that while he agreed with Smotrich that Israel should conduct a military takeover of southern Lebanon to push Hezbollah back from the border, such a plan “wouldn’t be enough.”
“We would need to do another thing — and that’s a war that would destroy our enemies,” he said of Hezbollah, which has launched near-daily drone, rocket and missile attacks on Israel since October 8, resulting in the displacement of some 70,000 residents of northern Israel.
“Even if they’re pushed back from the border, even if there’s a security zone, even if they move a bit — you can’t just leave people behind whose entire purpose and essence is to destroy the State of Israel,” Ben Gvir said.
“What they don’t do in six months they will do in a year, and what they don’t do in a year they will do in two,” he added. “We must not leave this to our children. Not in the south and not in the north.”
Throughout the months of attacks on Israel’s northern communities, which the Iran-backed Hezbollah said it was carrying out in support of Gaza amid the war there against Hamas, Israel has threatened to go to war to force the terror group away from the border.
International efforts including by France and the US to resolve the matter through a diplomatic solution have thus far failed, with Hezbollah maintaining that it will not enter into any concrete discussions with Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
Smotrich on Sunday had demanded that Israel not shy away from launching a military takeover of southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not withdraw from the border, and promoted a plan reminiscent of Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon in the years following the First Lebanon War in 1982.
Speaking at a faction meeting of his far-right Religious Zionism party held, unusually, in northern Israel, he demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a clear announcement of a plan to deal with the Iran-backed terror group, saying that if necessary, military action must be taken.
“A public ultimatum must be issued to Hezbollah that they completely stop firing and withdraw all forces to beyond the Litani River,” said Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry.
“If the ultimatum is not fully met, the IDF will launch an assault deep in Lebanese territory to defend the northern communities, including ground entry and Israeli military takeover of the southern Lebanon area.”
Further echoing comments by Smotrich, Ben Gvir told 104.5 FM that the blame for the lack of effective action against Hezbollah lay with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, both of whom have spoken out in recent days about the seeming lack of direction that the war in Gaza has taken.
Netanyahu should send Gantz packing, Ben Gvir suggested, referring to Gantz’s ultimatum to Netanyahu Saturday night, in which he said that if no clear plan of action is set in motion by June 8, he will pull his centrist National Unity part from the governing coalition and return to the opposition.
“It would be good if the prime minister respected his wishes and sent him, Gallant and [war cabinet observer Gadi] Eisenkot home,” Ben Gvir said, reiterating his call for Gallant to be fired after the defense minister said he wouldn’t allow Israel to implement military or civil rule of Gaza after Hamas is dismantled.
“We need a government that sees to the issues of the right,” Ben Gvir said. “Gallant is a right-wing defense minister who implements left-wing ideology.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivers a statement to the press at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv, May 15, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)Noting that even if Gantz’s National Unity party withdraws from government, the coalition will still have a majority, with 64 seats out of 120, Ben Gvir suggested that in the future, Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman or New Hope chair Gideon Sa’ar could join the government, bolstering its numbers.
“I see them as an important force,” he added.
Hawkish Liberman, who on Saturday night said he would only join the war cabinet if Netanyahu resigned, responded to Ben-Gvir on Monday, saying his party wouldn’t join the government even once Gantz left, as he refuses to “give legitimacy to a government that has no legitimacy.”
“The entire government needs to put down the keys and go to elections,” Liberman added.
Sa’ar had demanded to join the war cabinet after he split his New Hope faction away from Gantz’s party in March, but returned to the opposition after his request was denied.
Asked if he believes Netanyahu should also be included in criticism of the war cabinet’s actions and decisions, Ben Gvir said that the prime minister “needs to choose whether he wants to go the way of Gallant, Gantz and Eisenkot, which is the route of compromises, political deals and ending the war.”
“Or,” Ben Gvir continued, “he can go my way: continuing until the end, victory until the end, and with emigration from Gaza encouraged.
Bibi too much on the road to compromise? Gee. Never thought of it that way.