National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby addressed reporters on Friday afternoon in a rare counterattack of Finance Minister Smotrich‘s “extremist, ridiculous” charges against a hostage deal less than 24 hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu positively responded to the joint statement from the US, Qatar and Egypt imploring negotiations to continue next week.
In a Friday morning post on X, Smotrich accused the mediators of “creating symmetry” between the hostages and the Palestinian prisoners who would be exchanged for their release.
“The time has not come to release the abominable terrorists who killed the Jews,” Smotrich wrote. “And above all, the time has not really come for a surrender deal that would stop war before the destruction of the Nazis of Hamas and Daesh and allow them to rehabilitate and return to murdering Jews again.”
Smotrich went on to call the deal a “dangerous trap” in which the negotiators will impose a “surrender agreement” upon Israel.
Smotrich’s post concluded by calling on Netanyahu to “not fall into this trap” and not to agree to a “shift” from the red lines he set.
In response to the mediator’s statement on Thursday, Israel said it will send a team of negotiators either to Cairo or Doha on Thursday. Qatar and Egypt are working on bringing the Hamas side to the table as well.
Kirby said statements attacking the deal from Smotrich and other members of the Israeli government are “wrong not only in substance” but are jeopardizing the lives of the hostages and Israel’s own national security interests.
“Smotrich, for example, claimed that the hostage deal is surrendering to Hamas, and hostages should not be exchanged for prisoners. Smothrich essentially suggests that the war ought to go on indefinitely without pause and the lives of the houstates have no real concern at all,” Kirby said. “His arguments are dead wrong.”
Kirby broke down several points to disprove Smotrich’s arguments.
“Let me remind you that most of Hamas’s top leaders are now dead. Hamas’s organized military structure and capacity has been destroyed,” Kirby said. “Israel has now completed nearly all of its major military objectives other than the explicit war aim of bringing the hostages home.”
Releasing security prisoners to secure hostages’ freedom
Sometimes prisoners are traded for hostages, he added, referencing the United States’s recent prisoner exchange with Russia which brought home journalist Evan Gershkowitz.
“Sometimes countries that value the lives of their citizens as we do in the United States and as Israel does, make these kinds of trades to save innocent lives,” Kirby said. “There’s no surrender in that.”
Kirby then criticized Smothrich’s claim on Friday suggesting the mediators, including the United States, would force Israel to surrender on everything.
Smotrich is saying this as President Biden is actually directing the United States military to the Middle East to directly defend Israel against a potential attack from Iran or other Iranian backed terrorist groups, Kirby said.
Kirby said Biden is fully prepared to defend Israel again with the United States military for the second time in four months.
“The idea that [Biden] would support a deal that leaves Israel security at risk, it’s just factually wrong. It’s outrageous. It’s absurd. And anybody who knows President Biden, and how staunchly he’s been a defender for Israel for the entirety of his public service, ought to be ashamed for thinking anything different.”
Kirby said the views expressed by Smotrich specifically would in fact sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages – his own countrymen – and American hostages as well.
Importantly, Kirby added, countries around the world and across the Middle East, including those with peace agreements with Israel, have endorsed the joint statement released on Thursday night.
President Biden is going to continue to do what’s right, Kirby said, as he has Israel’s back in the hostage negotiations and against Iran and its proxy groups.
Reporters pressed Kirby numerous times on Friday’s call about the White House’s decision to directly call out against Smotrich, whose views have been consistent since the beginning of the war.
“A better question is what made Mr. Smotrich, in the wake of the joint statement and the support that it’s been given, not only by other leaders but by Israel itself, what made him decide to put out that statement?” Kirby retorted. “That outrageous and absurd statement. I think that’s a better question.”
In June, Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir both said they would not agree to Biden’s proposal and threatened to leave the government if his plan was accepted.
“We will not allow the war to end without the complete eradication of Hamas. If the prime minister proceeds with the reckless deal under the conditions published today, which means the end of the war and abandoning the goal to destroy Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government,” Ben-Gvir warned.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has a safety net from us for a hostage deal if Ben-Gvir and Smotrich leave the government.”
Lapid’s comments referred to a promise that he had made to Netanyahu in February that he would ensure the prime minister’s government retained the necessary mandates to remain viable in the event that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir left the government in protest of a hostage deal.
Lapid emphasized that “the Israeli government cannot ignore President Biden’s significant speech. There is a deal on the table and it needs to be done.”
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