A day after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Israel’s strategy includes a “political leg” to expand the country’s territory into Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and Gaza, the US State Department declined to address most of his remarks, focusing only on his comments about the West Bank.
In a brief response to ynet, the State Department said, “As President Donald Trump has made clear, he does not support the annexation of the West Bank by Israel.”
Smotrich said in a speech yesterday at the inauguration of the Ma’oz Tzur settlement in the Binyamin region that “there will be a political leg in Gaza that will expand our borders. With God’s help, there will be a concluding political leg in Lebanon that will expand our borders to the Litani, along defensible lines. And there will be a concluding political leg in Syria with the crown of Mount Hermon and at least the buffer zone.”
In his speech, he said, “People always talk about the military leg and then the necessary concluding political leg, and there are those who criticize us, saying there are excellent military achievements but no political leg. But that is because they are used to a political leg of defeat and surrender. “In the past two and a half years, we have been accustoming everyone to what our concluding political leg looks like. We have a strong military leg with achievements on all fronts, with great divine assistance and outstanding work by the security establishment in all its branches.” After pledging to establish what he called concluding political legs in Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and Gaza, the finance minister added, “This is what is respected in our neighborhood in the Middle East, and this is what is needed to secure the safety, existence and future of the Land of Israel.”
The Ma’oz Tzur settlement is located along Route 443 at a strategic point near the community of Beit Horon. Other ministers attended the ceremony. Defense Minister Israel Katz, who was not present, sent a video message saying, “Settlement in Judea and Samaria not only protects the entire State of Israel, it also strengthens security and reflects our deep connection to our roots and to our presence here, in the Land of Israel.”