Not only Gaza: The move Smotrich demands to also carry out in Lebanese territory

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called at the National Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem to apply permanent Israeli sovereignty over the territories captured in Gaza and Lebanon, to encourage voluntary emigration of Gaza residents to Arab countries, and rejected the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism as a "fiction." Smotrich demanded changing the nature of relations with the US from dependence to partnership.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich delivered a sharp political-security speech at the National Conservatism Conference (NATCON) held at the Binyanei Ha'uma in Jerusalem in partnership with the Herzl Institute and the Edmund Burke Foundation. His remarks focused on four main axes: applying permanent sovereignty over the territories captured in Gaza and Lebanon, returning to the paradigm that "a side that started a war and lost it will lose territory"; encouraging voluntary emigration of Gaza residents to Muslim Arab countries, defining the Strip as a "political mutation that is not viable"; rejecting Palestinian nationalism as a "fiction invented at the beginning of the last century"; and calling for a structural change in Israel-US relations from dependence to equal partnership. Smotrich also addressed international criticism of the human cost in Gaza, stating that focusing on individual suffering is a "lie" that does not determine the justice of the war. The article extensively presents Smotrich's remarks, with broad quotes from his speech, without analysis or critical context from the reporter.