US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby addressed reporters on Friday afternoon in a rare counterattack of Finance Minister Bezalel 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 urging for 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 the hostages’ release.
“The time has not come to release the abominable terrorists who killed Jews,” Smotrich wrote. “And above all, the time has not really come for a surrender deal that would stop the war before the destruction of the Nazis of Hamas and ISIS 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 would impose a “surrender agreement” upon Israel.
His post concluded by calling on Netanyahu to “not fall into this trap” and not to agree to a “shift” from the red lines the prime minister 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 that statements from Smotrich and other members of the Israeli government attacking the deal 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. Smotrich essentially suggested that the war ought to go on indefinitely without pause and that the lives of the hostages 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 have been destroyed,” he counseled. “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 US’s recent prisoner exchange with Russia, which brought home journalist Gershkovich.
“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 Smotrich’s claim on Friday that suggested that the mediators, including the US, would force Israel to surrender to all of its objectives.
Notably, Smotrich was saying this as US President Joe Biden was actually directing America’s military to the Middle East to directly defend Israel against a potential attack from Iran or other Iranian-backed terrorist groups, Kirby underlined.
He said Biden was fully prepared to defend Israel again with the US military for the second time in four months.
“The idea that [Biden] would support a deal that leaves Israel’s security at risk is 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 of thinking anything different,” Kirby stated.
In fact, the US’s national security communications adviser said, the views expressed by Smotrich specifically meant the sacrifice of 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.
Biden is going to continue to do what’s right, he stressed, as the American president has Israel’s back in the hostage negotiations and against Iran and its proxy groups.
Reporters pressed Kirby numerous times concerning the White House’s decision to directly call out Smotrich, whose views have been consistent since the beginning of the war, on Friday.
“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, [to say what he said]? What made him decide to put out that statement?” Kirby retorted. “That is an 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 Netanyahu “has a safety net from us for a hostage deal if Ben-Gvir and Smotrich leave the government.”
His comments referred to a promise that he had made to the prime minister in February that he would ensure his 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.”