Smotrich To US: “Unparalleled Hypocrisy, Don’t Preach To Us About Human Rights”

 

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich on Monday excoriated the Biden administration, accusing them of “unparalleled hypocrisy” for the State Department’s recent criticism of how Israel protects its citizens against Arab terror in Yehudah and Shomron.

Smotrich’s remarks came in the wake of the State Department’s condemnation of comments by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir following the murder of Batsheva Nigri, H’yd, near Chevron. Ben-Gvir said on a Channel 12 News panel last week: “My right and that of my wife and my children to travel on the roads of Yehudah and Shomron is more important than freedom of movement for Arabs.” Addressing an Arab-Israeli journalist on the panel, he added: “Sorry Mohammad. That’s the reality, the truth. My right to life takes precedence over freedom of movement.”

Not surprisingly, Israeli leftists pounced on his comments as “racist,” implying that Israelis should allow themselves to be killed rather than place any limitations on the “innocent until proven guilty” Palestinians.

The State Department lost no time in joining the bandwagon, issuing a condemnatory statement against Ben-Gvir. “We strongly condemn Minister Ben-Gvir’s inflammatory comments on the freedom of movement of Palestinian residents of the West Bank,” the statement said. “We condemn all racist rhetoric; as such messages are particularly damaging when amplified by those in leadership positions and are incongruent with advancing respect for human rights for all.”

Smotrich responded by saying: “Anyone who attacks us in the world is hypocritical. There’s no nation that has waged a battle of survival against murderous terror for decades in a cleaner and more cautious way than the Jewish nation. I won’t mention the Americans and how they operated in Afghanistan and Iraq. They shouldn’t preach to us about human rights, not to the IDF nor to us on a state level. That is unparalleled hypocrisy. There’s no nation more moral than Israel and no army more moral than the IDF.”